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''■•a>t_>k'*j^ 



The Waters 
Above the Firmament 

OR 

The Earth's Annular System 

THE MOSAIC RECORD SCIENTIFICALLY EXPLAINED 



By ISAAC n: Vail 

AUTHOR OF "the DELUGE AND ITS CAUSE," "THE COAL PROBLEM, 
" EDEN'S flaming sword," " OPHIR's GOLDEN WEDGE," 
"the GREAT RED DRAGON," ETC. 



^ec0nti lEtJition 

REVISED AND ENLARGED 



" Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs. 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.' 

— Tennyson. 



FERRIS & LEACH 

29 North Seventh Street 

1902. 



Two Co^"c* RECeivEt 

MAY. 9 1902 
Jlass ^xxc *- 

COPY B. 



QBfeSg 



Copyright, 1902, 
By ISAAC N. VAIL. 



mTRODlTCTIO:^ TO SECOJSTD EDITION. 

" The Annular Theory '' was first given to the world 
in a pamphlet entitled " The Deluge and Its Cause," in 
1874. The first edition of this volume was published in 
1885, and entitled "The Story of the Rocks; or. The 
Earth's Annular System.'' Both were published by a 
common printer, and sold without advertising. Re- 
vised and enlarged, it is again given to the public 
through the regular business channels of well-estab- 
lished publishers, as " The Waters above the Firma- 
ment." The theory — the history of which is left for 
other times and other pens — originated with me many 
years ago as a small conception. The idea led me into 
practical investigations and deep research of ancient 
records, with the result that it has grown and devel- 
oped into a theory, I believe, " not born to die," and 
caused me to produce the following series of volumes 
(of which '' The Waters above the Firmament " is the 
first), nearly all ready for publication — the work of 
more than thirty years. These volumes occupy separate 
but contiguous fields, and present an overwhelming 
array of testimony in support of the claim that our 
planet was, until long after the beginning of the human 
period, surrounded by vast lingering remnants of its 
Saturn-like rings. They will be published, Providence 
permitting, as indicated at the end of this volume. 



iv Introduction. 

" The World, an Eden," succeeds this. It presents 
the claim that the home of infant man was the green- 
house earth, made such by a vapor world-roof like that 
which now surrounds the planet Jupiter. It gives the 
irrefutable testimony of the world^s ancient records on 
this question, and as an inevitable result proves that 
the Mosaic cosmology is the golden record of canopy 
times, and must be interpreted accordingly. It places 
all ancient writings on a higher plane of human thought 
simply because it demonstrates the world conditions 
that existed at the birth-time of human history. It 
shows beyond a doubt that some of the primitive watery 
vapors surrounded the earth when the prophets lived, 
and that even down to the time of Christ they gave 
specific character to the terrestrial skies. 

" The Gods Unvailed " is Volume HI. of this series. 
It is the " Annular Theory " proved by witnesses speak- 
ing from the very cradle-time of humanity. It proves 
that legendary lore is canopy lore, and elevates the 
great mass of classic mythology to the level of historic 
truth. It simply unvails the mythic world, showing 
that the history of the ancient deities is the history of 
great world changes. It proves that some of the myths 
— apparently the silliest — are the veritable facts of 
recent terrestrial conditions altogether misunderstood 
and misinterpreted by mythologists. It carries the 
birth-time of humanity's reliable annals back into what 
has hitherto been considered the midnight of history, 
and consequently transforms the darkest pages of dis- 



Introduction. v 

carded ancient thought into a shining argument of evolv- 
ing skies. It opens the door and clears the way to a 
new, immeasurable and fascinating field of research, 
showing that the gods of humanity's childhood were 
imposing, all-involving and all-commanding celestial 
forms, persistently linked to a revolving world-roof of 
sun-lit clouds, such as we see to-day investing other 
planets. Taking this as a basic thought a thousand 
truths unfold to view, and as surely as time rolls on, the 
scientist and theologian will meet on this ground, aban- 
don their old structures and rebuild by the light of the 
unvailed gods. 

" The Fall of Lucifer,'' or Volume IV., of the " An- 
nular Theory," is a philosophic and final solution of the 
problem of Eden, its deluding serpent, and its trees of 
life and death. It proves beyond a doubt that " Lu- 
cifer," the " light-bearer," and "Agathodaemon," the 
" good demon," were one and the same deified spirit of 
the shining vapors that possessed the skies of primeval 
man. That the " Great Eed Dragon " which also fell 
from the skies, and the " Leviathan," slain in primordial 
waters, were the same flood-vomiting spirit that held 
the destiny of man as Jupiter's canopy of clouds holds 
the fate of the life-forms on that planet to-day. Thus 
the serpent of all mythic times is shown to be the per- 
sonified genius of the watery skies. " How art thou 
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! " 
(Isaiah 14: 12.) 

" Canopus, or the Mystic Vail." Volume V. This 



vi Introduction. 

volume is a collection from the vast fund of canopy 
memorials found in ancient classic and mythic thought. 
Greece, Eome, Egypt, Persia, India, China, Japan, 
Scandinavia and America all saw the last earth-canopy, 
and each has left an immortal record of the fact. Can- 
opus was the Egyptian celestial water god, with the 
water vase and the serpent his symbols, and the very 
name is a canopy memorial as enduring as stone. The 
Bible, the Zend Avesta, the Sagas, and other ancient 
Scriptures, testify in this volume, and the world's jury 
takes the evidence. 

"And he will destroy in this mountain the face of 
the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is 
spread over all nations." (Isa. 25: 7.) 

I have published the following pamphlets, all in ex- 
ploitation of the Annular Evolution of Earth: " The 
Coal Problem" (1885), "The Great Eed Dragon" 
(1894), "Eden's Flaming Sword" (1896), "Alaska, 
Land of the ]N'ugget. Why ? " (1897), " Ophir's Gol- 
den Wedge " (1898). 

I certainly would neglect a duty did I not here ex- 
press my obligations to the many friends who have 
aided me in this work by word and deed. Letters of 
cheer — many hundreds of them — have been light and 
comfort to me during the laborious work of unfolding 
the truth from the footprints of the ages, and a source 
of great encouragement through the dark and cloudy 
days of the business difficulties. I want especially to 
thank my old friend and fellow teacher, William H. 



Introduction. vii 

Zellej, of Marlton, 'New Jersey, for his advice and re- 
view upon many points, and his valuable aid in perform- 
ing much of the executive work, and in placing the con- 
tract of publication. But first and last of all my cred- 
itors is the dutiful copartner of all my hopes and fail- 
ures — she whose pen traced the page when mine could 
not, whose nursing care carried the author of the " An- 
nular Theory '' temporarily over the chasm of the 
grave, is the one to thank for the expansion of this 
hypothesis into wider fields. Also, my two daughters, 
young but diligent workers in this new field, have 
greatly aided me. Learned in their especial lines of re- 
search, they dare to teach with the courage of their 
convictions. 

ISAAC N. VAIL. 



Pasadena, Cal., First month, 1901. 



LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 



OPP. 
PAGE 

Fig. 1. Early Stage of Ring Formation 30^ 

Fig. 2. Earth Cooled from a Molten State (Its Ring System 

Formed ) 45 

Fig. 3. Earth and Its Annular System 74 ^ 

Fig. 4. The First Canopy Slowly Spreading Polarward . . 82 ^ 

Fig. 5. The Last Canopy of Earth 100 ' 

Fig. 6. The Closing Scene (Earth with Belts Capping the 

Poles) 167 . 

Fig. 7. View of Northern Heavens (Poles, Arches, Stars, 

Etc.) 175 

Fig, 8. Sun with Perihelia 232 

Fig. 9. Uranus (Rings Forming) 241 

Fig. 10. Saturn (Rings Formed) 257 " 

Fig. 11. Jupiter (Rings Fallen) 273 ^ 

Fig. 12. Earth in Edenic Times 310 "^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
All Worlds Made Alike 13 



CHAPTER II. 
Some General Considerations 31 

CHAPTER in. 
Evidence Supplied by the Planets Saturn, Jupiter and Mars 
in Support of the Annular Theory 46 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Geological Record Examined 62 

CHAPTER V. 
The Earth's Annular as Demonstrated by Historic Testimony 77 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Noachian Deluge 99 

CHAPTER Vn. 
Legends of the Flood 110 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Consideration of the Evidence in Support of the Claim 
that the Waters of the Ocean Have Been Greatly In- 
creased in Volume in Very Recent Geologic Times 131 



PAGE 

CHAPTER IX. 

Some Topographical Features that Prove the Declension 
of Exterior Matter 151 

CHAPTER X. 

The Glacial Epochs and Eden Ruins — Annular Snows the 

Only Competent. Cause 167 

CHAPTER XI. 

A Brief Review of the Geologic Ages and a Presentation of 
the Evidence They Afford of Primitive Glaciation, etc. . . 202 

CHAPTER XII. 

Evidence Advanced in Support of the Claim that the Earth's 
Annular System was the Seed Bed of Organisms, and 
Consequently a Region of Microscopic Life and In- 
fusorial Forms 232 

CHAPTER XIII. 

A Consideration of the Evidence that Leads to the Conclu- 
sion that the Carbon Strata of the World were Deposited 
as Aqueous Sediment from the Earth's Annular System, 
Where It Had Remained for Countless Ages as a Primi- 
tive Distillation Expelled from the Incandescent or Burn- 
ing Earth 255 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Is Coal a Vegetable Product? An Examination of the Coal 
Beds Under the Light of the Annular Theory 274 

CHAPTER XV. 

Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence of the Annular Origin 
of Coal in the Metamorphism of Carbon Beds. Also, 
Some Conclusive Testimony from the Cretaceous and 
Tertiary Coals 310 



PAGE 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Oil, Gas and Other Carbons 336 

CHAPTER XVn. 
Conclusive Evidence of Annular Downfalls in the Tertiary 
Ocean of the Northern Hemisphere 356 

APPENDIX. 

Note I. — ^The Last Advance of Glaciers 372 

Note II.— The Lost Continent 375 

Note in. — ^Anthracites in British America 376 

Note rV. — ^A Significant Admission 376 

The True Origin of Coal. The Vegetation Theory Disproved 377 

Captain Carter's Original Demonstration 395 

The Origin of Petroleum 396 

Lord Kelvin on Oxygen and Coal 405 



Efje TOaters aiobe tlje JFirmament. 



CHAPTER I. 

ALL WOELDS MADE ALIKE. 

To endeavor to prove the truth of the theory that 
supposes this earth to have been, from the close of the 
igneous era till the close of the antediluvian period, 
surrounded by an annular system, seems to me, since 
I have been so long gathering in the fund of evidence, 
like trying to establish a self-evident truth; yet, since 
geologic science has been pursued by a host of honest 
and indefatigable workers, with ideas at variance with 
this claim, and since established theories are not ex- 
pected to be abandoned abruptly, it is plain, that as the 
annular theory demands a general and thorough re- 
view of the geologic record, as now interpreted, a 
great effort will be necessary to bring it within the pur- 
view and consideration of science. 

The geological " column '^ reveals many facts that 
have not yet been recognized by investigators. It would 
be strange, indeed, if frail and erring man should have 
erected a faultless fabric out of the crude materials 
supplied; strange, indeed, if the " records " have in all 
cases been interpreted without fault; strange, indeed, 
if the edifice will not some time have to be taken down 
and rebuilt, as it has been at different times. The time 
was, when investigators were " few and far between." 
Thousands of eyes now run over the field where trod 
the investigators of fifty or a hundred years ago, and 



14 The Earth's Annular System. 

the day is past when a geologist can sit in his studio 
and frame a theory for the great mass of thinkers. The 
true theory was written by the hand of the great Mas- 
ter-builder, and it must be read on the spot, where the 
wondrous mystery lies. 

It is with no desire to find fault with, or undervalue 
the work of the noble band of ardent workers now in 
the field, that I advance the claim that we have greatly 
misunderstood and misinterpreted the fascinating vol- 
ume whose time-stamped pages are unfolding to our 
view. We have misapprehended the rock-engraved 
hieroglyphics from the very first rude lines, traced on 
the archsean piles. 

It was a sublime conception of Prof. Winchell that 
represented all the waters of the terrestrial oceans as 
held in suspension on the outskirts of the primeval at- 
mosphere by the inveterate heat of the igneous earth. 

The reader, no doubt, remembers his glowing de- 
scription of the Titanic contest between the powers of 
Vulcan and N^eptune. How the waters on high de- 
scended, while yet the earth was a hot and seething 
mass, and were again and again flung into space by the 
irritated fires; till, finally, worried by the eternal 
attacks of IN'eptune, the fires grew tame, and the oceans 
of vapor settled upon the earth. Thus is portrayed the 
mistaken idea now universally prevalent, that from 
that period, beginning as soon as the waters could re- 
main upon the earth, these having all descended upon 
it, worked as the universal ocean now does in building 
up the aqueous crusts; that the work of denudation 
and the distribution of detrital matter was participated 
in by the entire ocean as it now exists, from the very 



All Worlds Made Alike. 15 

period when the internal fires grew quiet and permitted 
the waters to remain upon the surface of the planet. 

Now is this claim philosophic? Did the oceans all 
descend at that time ? I try to settle this point by the 
test of philosophic law; for, here is the foundation 
stone of the geologic edifice men have built, and com- 
ing scientists will lift it from its bed and relay it. I 
ask geologists to critically examine this point and see 
whether it be not a fact that only a small part of the 
oceans fell at the time alluded to, and that the re- 
mainder continued to revolve about the earth for im- 
measurable time, as an annular system, or a belt sys- 
tem like that of the planet Jupiter. IvTow if the oceans 
all fell to the earth at the close of the igneous era, then 
the current theory of crust evolution is correct; but if 
not, it is incorrect. 

It will be shown in the following pages that the ter- 
restrial waters did not all fall at that time; that physi- 
cal law demands that they should not. This is sus- 
ceptible of the clearest demonstration. The import- 
ance of this question cannot easily be overestimated; 
and yet, the first thought may be, " Of what value is 
it V 

The reader who patiently reviews this problem will 
see that a more important one has never come before 
man for his consideration. 

In the first place, let me press this question : Is there 
any thing unreasonable or unphilosophic in the claim, 
that the aqueous vapors, kept away from the molten 
earth by the repelling force of heat, were necessarily 
whirled into independent revolution about the central 
fiery orb? Since we see at least two giant planets in 
the solar system attended by such revolving vapors, is 



16 The Earth's Annular System. 

it not a reasonable claim? It is conceded that Jupi- 
ter's belts are aqueous vapors. 

These make a complete revolution in about ten 
hours, and it is claimed by eminent astronomers that 
they are held away from the planet by his own native 
heat. 

Well, suppose this heat were suddenly removed? 
The Jovine atmosphere would contract, and what 
would become of Jupiter's moving belts ? They are so 
many tons of moving matter, possessing so many tons 
of moving energy, and every one must see that that 
energy would prolong their stay in Jupiter's firma- 
ment. It is evident that revolving vapors would be no 
more likely to fall immediately upon the withdrawal of 
heat, than a revolving moon in the same situation; and 
if their moving energy was great enough, it is plain 
that Jupiter's belts would continue to revolve inde- 
pendently about him after he had cooled down. ]^ow, 
since the equatorial belts of both Jupiter and Saturn 
move more rapidly than the polar, they must be mov- 
ing independently of each other and also independent- 
ly of the bodies of those planets. That is, they do not 
move in those planets' atmospheres, but are revolving 
about them in their own independent orbits. Then 
Jupiter's belts do possess energy sufficient to insure 
their continuance in a belted or annular system revolv- 
ing about him, for unknown time. This feature of the 
question will be fully elaborated in another chapter. 

We know that the terrestrial waters, like Jupiter's, 
were at one time kept away from the surface of our 
planet, and we know, too, that in the revolving mass, 
a moving energy was imparted to these also, and that 
that energy must have prolonged their stay in the ter- 



All Worlds Made Alike. 17 

restrial firmament, after the earth cooled down. One 
must see that on the very threshold of this investiga- 
tion, my claim that the earth's oceans did not all re- 
turn to the earth at the close of the igneous era, is a 
reasonable and philosophic one. I might almost say a 
necessary one. 

JSTo geologist, astronomer, or physicist, will, I pre- 
sume, for a moment doubt the now firmly established 
conclusion, that the earth was at one time in an igneous- 
fluid state ; and also that while it remained in that fiery 
condition, all its waters, and whatever else that was 
vaporized and sublimed by the inveterate heat, such as 
the less refractory minerals and metals in the boiling 
mass, Avere driven away from its surface and hindered 
from falling upon it by the repelling energy of heat. A 
failure to follow this conclusion, and the consequences 
necessarily flowing from this primitive condition of our 
planet, has involved us in a maze of difiiculty and error. 
A failure to comprehend many of the legitimate conse- 
quences of the measureless force employed, every 
pound of which must have been conserved in after- 
effects, has immeasurably checked the solution of some 
of the grandest problems of !N"ature. 

Let us now begin at the very foundation of this physi- 
cal problem, and critically examine every step of our 
progress. We will reject every link of evidence that 
will not bear the test of scientific scrutiny. I must ask 
the reader to patiently follow me in the line of argu- 
ment I am about to pursue, for it requires a round of 
investigation that few men will at first appreciate. 

Our foundation is the molten, or igneous world. The 
vaporized water, mineral and metallic elements re- 
pelled from it, existed as a great vaporous atmosphere, 



18 The Earth's Annular System. 

that rotated with the earth, just as our atmosphere now 
does. If the earth then rotated once in every twenty- 
four hours, the atmosphere turned with it in the same 
time. If it rotated in the short space of about three 
hours, as claimed by Proctor and other eminent astron- 
omers, the great primeval atmosphere rotated with it 
in three hours. Does not this postulate demand uncon- 
ditional assent from all men? Will any fair reasoner 
claim that I assume here what is not self-evident ? A 
little thought will induce the most incredulous to admit 
that my claim here made is just and necessarily true. 
Let us remember, then, that the primeval atmosphere 
rotated with the earth — ^in the same time, no matter 
how long or short that period was. Then the question is 
at once reduced to this: — When did those vapors and 
other material constituting that atmosphere return to 
the earth? For they liave returned. The question, 
how did they return, is also a legitimate one, and will 
receive due consideration. 

They returned or fell to the earth, either immediate- 
ly after it cooled down and the heat ceased to repel 
them, or they continued for a time to revolve around 
it. If some of those vapors fell at the close of the 
igneous era, then a part of them continued to revolve. 
As before intimated, the science of Geology has been 
built entire upon the former supposition, and the an- 
nular theory is planted upon the latter. Witnesses 
must determine which of these foundations is false; 
with a reasonable probability in the truth of the latter, 
as attested by the Jovial and Saturnian belted or an- 
nular systems; and the improbability that the potential 
energy stored up in the rotating mass of vapors during 



All Worlds Made Alike. 19 

its repulsion by heat, would all be expended in their 
decline in the period between azoic and paleozoic time. 
The most eminent scientists agree that the great 
mass of swaddling vapors in the primitive atmosphere 
were driven at least 200,000 miles from the earth. 
Others claim that the earth's vaporous atmosphere dur- 
ing the igneous era, embraced the orbit of the moon 
within its boundaries. It must be remembered that 
all the carbon in the great casement of aqueous rocks, 
the vast oceans of oxygen now contained in the silicates, 
sulphates, carbonates, and oxides of the crust, as well 
as the nitrogen and hydrogen, in numerous compounds, 
enormously swelled its volume, so that a modern chem- 
ist speaking from his laboratory, makes the claim that 
if that atmosphere pressed on the earth in proportion 
to its depth as ours does to-day, unaffected by repelling 
heat, it would be equal to a column of mercury more 
than 22,000 inches high. I believe it was M. Figuier 
that first advanced the idea that this atmosphere ex- 
tended to the moon, and others would extend it still 
farther. This, of course, is understood to be its extent 
at the close of the igneous era, and before the aqueous 
beds were laid down. N^ow, however conditioned the 
atmosphere was at that time, one thing is very evi- 
dent, it was one of vast extent. If I should take ad- 
vantage of these claims and base my calculations upon 
an atmosphere 200,000 or 240,000 miles deep, it would 
greatly aid me, and make my conclusions much more 
apparent and conclusive. But to be sure that we are 
moving entirely within philosophic bounds, and to give 
no possible opportunity for an opposer to claim that 
I strain any point or take undue advantage of extrava- 
gant admissions of men of science, I will not claim 



20 The Earth's Annular System. 

240,000 nor 200,000 miles as the atmosphere's depth, 
but will base my calculations on a depth of only 100,- 
000 miles. This is amply sufficient for us, and with 
this depth it is easy to prove beyond a doubt, that a 
mighty fund of vapors continued to revolve for un- 
known time about the earth. 

Again, it is to-day a favorite theme of astronomers 
that, during the igneous era, the earth rotated in a 
period of only three or four hours. If this be true, the 
probability that the matter in the primeval atmosphere 
was whirled into belts or rings is increased from six to 
eight fold. It seems scarcely needful for me to say, 
that astronomers came to this conclusion by a legiti- 
mate process of philosophic deduction. It must be 
evident that this rate of rotation would be of great ad- 
vantage to us in establishing annular conditions; for, 
almost every school-boy has learned that if the earth 
should rotate more than seventeen times as rapidly as 
it now does, the oceans at the equator would be whirled 
into space, and made to revolve around it. Then, a 
rotation in three hours, or eight times as rapidly as at 
present, would whirl matter already floating in the at- 
mosphere to a greater height and increase annular ten- 
dency in the same proportion. However, we will de- 
cline to make use of this advantage, and use only that 
rate of rotation that every one knows to be correct, 
viz: — one revolution in 24 hours. 

Here, then, we have true philosophic data which all 
men will certainly admit to be fair; and upon which 
all men proceed to erect the annular theory, and we 
will endeavor to square every timber in the edifice by 
one unvarying rule : — Philosophic Law. If we succeed 
with these data to start with, men of science may mul- 



All Worlds Made Alike. 21 

tiply its certainty by at least twelve, for their own sat- 
isfaction. The data then are: — a primeval atmosphere 
admitted on all hands to be 100,000 miles deep, and a 
known velocity of rotation of once in 24 hours. 

With this rate of rotation, we also know that the 
velocity of any point on the equator of the earth was 
about 1,000 miles per hour, while the equatorial 
periphery of the great vaporous atmosphere moved 
with an actual velocity of more than 25,000 miles per 
hour. This, the most ordinary mind can determine; 
but as we are searching for facts that any child who 
may peruse these pages may understand, I will give the 
simple calculation here. 

If the atmosphere were 100,000 miles deep, and the 
earth 8,000 miles in diameter approximately, the 
diameter of the sphere would be 208,000 miles, and the 
circumference a little more than three times that or 
about 624,000 — the space that any point in the outer 
boundary of the atmosphere would move through in 24 
hours, — and of course JL of that distance in one hour, 
or 26,000 miles (I will give 1,000 miles to the other 
side out of pure liberality). 

The simple conclusion drawn from this is, as any one 
can see, that a ton of matter at or near the equator of 
the earth would have a momentum of 1,000 tons, in 
the rotating mass, while a ton of vapor or any other 
matter on the peripheral boundary of the atmosphere, 
would have a moving energy of 25,000 tons. 

Suppose the former were placed ten miles above the 
surface of the earth, and the latter brought down to 
the same position; the former with a velocity of 1,000 
miles per hour would immediately fall to the earth, 
while the latter would rise, and revolve around the 



23 The EarWs Annular System. 

earth as a satellite, as can be readily proved by a simple 
calculation. The mass possessing 25,000 tons of mov- 
ing energy must lose 8,000 tons of that moving force 
before it would, or could reach the earth; for, as I have 
before stated, it is a well-known fact that any body mov- 
ing around the earth at a rate of more than 17,00 
miles per hour, can never fall to its surface, and a ton 
moving at that rate would possess 17,000 tons of mo- 
mentum, and it becomes a known fact that if that mo- 
mentum were increased to 25,000 tons, or a velocity 
25,000 miles per hour, it would rise and revolve in its 
appropriate orbit about the earth, and never until its 
velocity became diminished to about 17,000 miles per 
hour could it reach the surface of the earth. 'Now it 
could make no difference whether a body be a ton of 
stone or a ton of aqueous vapor, it would continue to 
move around the earth so long as the centrifugal ex- 
ceeded the gravital force. Hence it is evident that 
upon the data assumed above, of an atmosphere less 
than half so extensive, as scientists assumed, and with 
a radial velocity more than six times less than they 
claim for the mass, the centrifugal force of a vast por- 
tion of the aqueous vapors and other matter in the 
primitive atmosphere was such as to effectually hinder 
their fall to the earth, as the latter cooled down and the 
vapors condensed. It is also evident that the matter 
in the lower regions of the atmosphere would fall on 
the withdrawal of terrestrial heat, and it is an easy 
thing to ascertain the line, or height in the atmosphere, 
beneath which all vapors upon condensing would fall, 
on account of insufficient centrifugal force or moving 
energy to keep them there, and all vapors beyond which 



All Woi'lds Made AliTce. 23 

would remain there because of insufficient gravital 
force to bring them down. 

What, then, must have been the condition of those 
materials that formed the upper and outer stratum of 
that great atmosphere after the earth became cool and 
the atmosphere shrank to near its present dimensions, 
and all the aqueous matter, etc., to the height of 20,000 
or 30,000 miles had fallen to the earth ? These must 
have been vast oceans of clouds possessing a velocity 
that prevented their descent, and which continued to 
move around the earth; that is, the earth had an an- 
nular system. If any criticism can shake this conclu- 
sion, there is nothing in law! One would suppose 
that this is all-sufficient to settle the question forever, 
that the oceans did not all fall to the earth at the close 
of the igneous era, but that such as existed when they 
had not centrifugal force sufficient to retain them on 
high, did fall; but I will not put this conclusion aside 
until I have shown still further the impregnable 
grounds upon which it is based. It is easy to demon- 
strate by a mathematical calculation that the above 
depth of atmosphere and rate of rotation are much 
greater than that which was actually necessary to pro- 
duce annular formation about the earth. 

The analytical expression used by mathematicians 
to represent the whole force of gravity at the earth's 
equator is ^ + -^, where g is the visible force of 

gravity, or the space a body will fall at the equator dur- 
ing the first second of time; c is the chord of an arc 
over which a revolving body moves in one second, 
and D the diameter of the orbit of which c, or the arc, 
is a part, and ~~ is the centrifugal force or the part of 



24 The EartWs Annular System. 

gravity destroyed by rotation, or movement in an orbit. 
It is evident that the arc c or the space passed over 
by the moving body in one second, will be practi- 
cally equal to the chord of the same arc, and I will 
therefore use it as such; that is, as a straight line. 
E'ow, as -^ is the centrifugal force, and g the gravital 
or centripetal force, when these forces are equal, and 
the body neither falls nor rises, but moves on con- 
tinually in its orbit, ^ = -|^. 

!N'ow there are 86,164 seconds in one complete rota- 
tion of the earth, and the circumference of the earth 
is i> X 3.1416 nearly, and this divided by 86,164, num- 
ber of seconds in one rotation, gives the length of the 
arc c, or the distance any point on the equator moves in 
one second of time ; in other words, the rate of motion. 
But when ^ =-^it is evident that gD = c^ or c =s/g D, 
and as often as c, the distance a body moves in one sec- 
ond, is contained in the whole circumference, so many 
seconds are there in one revolution; that is, D X 3.1416 

...-,., . 1 .— XI i>x 3.1416 
divided by c or its equal, \^gD, thus : -= = num- 

t/ 

ber of seconds in one revolution when ^ = -^ or when the 

earth rotates so rapidly that the centrifugal force on 

the equator equals gravity. Then we evidently have 

i>X 3.1416 7925x5280x3.1416* 



s^gB v/16.076 X 7925 X 5280 

* 7925 X 5280 = immber of feet in the earth's 
diameter, and 16.076 = ^ = distance a body 
falls at the equator during the first second. Let 
D be the earth's equatorial diameter (7925 
miles), and X the versed sine of the arc or dis- 
tance a point on the equator moves in one 
second; A X is the chord oi the arc, and prac- 
tically equal to the chord itself, where so small 
FIG. I. a portion of time is considered. 




All Worlds Made Alike. 25 

5069 seconds — l^ 24"^, 29^, or the time in which a 
ton of matter would have to revolve about the earth 
just at its surface at the equator, so that it would 
neither rise nor fall, and when, if its velocity were in- 
creased, it would move away from the earth, and in an- 
other orbit. Now this velocity is 17 times the present 
velocity of the earth's rotation, or about 17,000 miles 
per hour. Hence, we have an absolute demonstration 
that any body in our present atmosphere or in the great 
primeval atmosphere, or at any point above the earth, 
moving at the rate of 25,000 or 20,000 or even 17,500 
miles per hour around it, could not fall to its surface ! 
But vast quantities of primeval vapors did move with 
this velocity according to our assumed data, which data 
we have no reason to dispute, and therefore we are 
abimdantly justified in the claim that the earth for un- 
known time was accompanied with an annular system, 
and the geological record has been misinterpreted, and 
must be reviewed, and geological theories remodeled. 

The foregoing calculations, it might seem, are all- 
sufficient to establish the fact of annular formation 
about the primitive earth. But this formation, once 
effected, demands a permanency of existence, which an 
immensity of timiC only can affect. Rings once formed 
about the earth after the lapse of countless millions of 
years, cannot collapse in a day. They must lose their 
momentum with a steadiness as invariable as the flood 
of ages. It would be as unreasonable to suppose the 
earth's present satellite would in an hour break loose 
from its anchorage, and descend to the earth, as to sup- 
pose that one of its rings could do the same thing. Then 
with the primitive earth surrounded with a ring system 
whose longevity could be counted only by geologic 



2G The Earth's Annular System. 

ages, are we for a moment to suppose that the aqueous 
strata-formation only began after that system had 
fallen ? Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the 
aqueous strata began to form as the vapors began to 
descend, and that the latter continued their decline 
through all geologic time? What is there unreason- 
able in the claim? 

Rings of aqueous vapor, however associated with 
mineral and metallic matter, must follow in all respects 
the same laws as a moon or planetary satellite in their 
motions around their primary. There is a law well 
known to the mathematical world, called " Kepler's 
Third Law/' Let us bring it into use. By it we can 
readily demonstrate not only that the primitive distil- 
lations, repelled from the fiery sphere, were thrown 
into a ring-system, but by it we can also readily show 
how far above the earth's surface they must have re- 
volved about it. This law may be stated thus: The 
squares of the periodic times of revolving satellites are 
proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from 
the primary around which they move. This is of uni- 
versal application whatever be the shape or constitution 
of the satellites, as all must know. Then if we take 
the cube of the radius of the moon's orbit, which is 
sixty times the equatorial radius of the earth, and divide 
it by the square of the time of its revolution in seconds, 
it must be equal to the cube of the orbital radius of a 
ring of any kind of matter revolving about the earth, 
divided by the square of the time of its revolution in 
seconds. 

As before stated, the primeval atmosphere in which 
the matter distilled from the igneous earth existed, and 
out of which matter all terrestrial rings must have been 



All Worlds Made Alilie. 27 

formed, rotated with the earth; and we have assumed 
this rotation to be once in twenty-four hours, which 
the reader will readily grant. Then it must be seen 
that we have three known terms of a proportion to find 
the fourth. This fourth term is readily found, and 
is the actual distance of any terrestrial ring from the 
earth's center. Put this unknown quantity = R and 
we will have the following easy calculation. The time 
of the primitive atmosphere's rotation = 86,164 sec- 
onds, moon's time 2,360,608 seconds, and we have the 
following equation: — 

R^ _ 60^ 
(86,164)2— (2,360,608)2 
developing and reducing by simple calculation or more 
readily by logarithms, we will find R^ = 279.725264 
and R = 6.54 times the equatorial radius of the earth, 
or the semi-diameter of a ring revolving about the 
earth once in twenty-four hours. In other words, 
vapors, of whatever kind, in the primitive atmosphere, 
at the height or distance of 26,000 miles from the 
earth's center, or a little more than 22,000 miles from 
its surface, possessed all the independent energy of a 
revolving satellite; and all vapors farther off possessed 
still greater momentum, and those nearer the earth did 
not possess the energy of a satellite, and fell to the 
earth as it cooled down, leaving the more distant mat- 
ter moving independently about it. Is there anything 
wrong with this demonstration? Thus "Kepler's 
Third Law " establishes the truth of the annular 
theory, or proves itseK to be of no value at all ! 

Then we must see that we need no atmosphere 240,- 
000 miles in depth, nor 100,000, nor even 22,000 miles 
in order to show that annular formation was an abso- 



28 The Earth's Annular System. 

lute necessity in the evolution of the earth. Every 
mile added to this paltry depth, adds to the certainty 
of the fact. Did the earth then rotate in 86,164 
seconds, or did it rotate in half that time? Every 
second of diminution adds to the certainty of the fact. 
How can we escape this conclusion ? Thus is rendered 
plain and irrefutable the claim that the lower part of 
the great aqueous atmosphere, upon contraction and 
condensation resulting from the loss of terrestrial heat, 
fell away from the upper part, simply because the latter 
(like the rim of a great revolving wheel) moved so rap- 
idly it could not descend, but continued to revolve 
about the earth until it lost so much of its independent 
inertia, as to permit it to descend, as will be shown in 
its proper place. 

Proceeding thus from the known condition of the 
primitive earth along a track, every step of which is 
known, we have by adhering to strict philosophic de- 
mands, laid the foundation of a theory that no man can 
shake. The reader will from this time observe, that 
the fabric built upon this foundation, is not an obelisk, 
but a pyramid, whose successive stages add permanence 
to the adamantine sills upon which it stands. 

Let us look back upon the ground over which we 
have passed. We see a fiery globe rolling through 
space with a vast and heavy atmosphere, rotating so 
rapidly that its outskirts are unavoidably -made to as- 
sume such a velocity as to prevent them from falling. 
The earth was then a glowing sun, or a gleaming star, 
as analogy seems to prove. But when this earth from 
'^ its inmost bosom burned,'' when its oceans of molten 
minerals beat upon a seething coast, when its rivers 
were fluid fire, and its fountains dashing flames, when 



All Worlds Made Alike. 29 

its '^ clouds by fiery tempests driven/' dropped their 
steaming floods, an energy potential was stored up in 
the mighty upper deep — a vast abyss that literally built 
the aqueous world in after times. 

"We can easily imagine a world and its atmosphere 
turning so slowly that the vapors would fall immediate- 
ly after it cooled down, leaving the heavens clear, and 
a vast universal ocean washing it. But no such condi- 
tions have ever existed on the earth that could bring 
these things to pass. Every mathematician must know 
full well, that the rotation of such a mass once in 
twenty-four hours, would inevitably separate the upper 
vapors from the lower, leaving the upper far above the 
atmosphere or terrestrial firmament, obeying the de- 
mands of inexorable law. And when investigators 
recognize this fact, as it stands to-day demanding a re- 
spectful consideration, then, and not till then, will they 
be able to unlock some of the most perplexing questions 
of science, which now defy explanation. It is the 
Philosopher's key to " nature's vast cathedral," I dare 
not now point out the grand avenues of thought which 
it opens; but time will make all things visible. I al- 
most said, " all things new," not only in physics, but 
also in metaphysics ! All I ask of the reader of these 
pages is implicit recognition of Law, in this field of 
labor so near the Great Fountain of Truth. The mo- 
ment we leave it, we land in shadow and darkness. To 
propagate and teach one error hides a multitude of 
truths. An error taught in the name of science is a 
pernicious falsehood. We must, sooner or later, ac- 
knowledge the declaration of the missed and lamented 
Agassiz: "A physical fact is as sacred as a moral prin- 
ciple ; " for a physical fact ignored sends violated im- 



30 The Earth's Annular System, 

pulses through the nerve centers of society; and their 
impress is traced in imperishable lines, as by a hand 
unseen. But one physical fact stands out prominent 
in the universe, viz: Annular formation is a necessity 
in the evolution of worlds from their primitive state ! ! 
It must be plain from the foregoing that if geologists 
had followed the grand train of philosophic events re- 
sulting from the igneous fluidity of the burning earth 
in primitive times, they must have long since concluded 
that much of the aqueous crust of the earth once ex- 
isted with the revolving vapors, as infinitesimal parti- 
cles, or tellurio-cosmic dust, in the ring-system. It 
must be so; from the very nature of that great sublima- 
tion of terrestrial elements, we are forced to this con- 
clusion. And now if men of science will but open their 
eyes and look, they must see it. Let them follow this 
conclusion to its legitimate end, and they must see with 
the keenest regret, the fruitless toil of centuries. !N^o, 
not fruitless! They have sailed along the very boun- 
dary of this field of investigation, and its explored 
avenues have yielded returns that will aid in the new 
realm of thought. The glories of a brighter day are 
dawning in mankind's sky, when all men must see 
more nearly eye to eye. 



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CHAPTEK II. 

SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

To those who are able to follow physical causes to 
their legitimate and necessary effects, it will not be 
difficult to satisfactorily explain the mode of ring- 
formation about the primitive earth. The grand and 
stupendous changes that have recorded their way- 
marks, are the guide-posts of the investigator, pointing 
unmistakably to unavoidable conclusions. Being the 
physical means by which an incomprehensible Planner 
and Architect has completed a beautiful world for the 
habitation of man, according to unchanging law, if we 
follow philosophically the unmistakably known condi- 
tions stated in the previous chapter — i.e., those flowing 
from a state of igneous fusion, we cannot draw erron- 
eous conclusions. Then let us be careful that no error 
enters the threshold of our work as we pass from the 
known to the unknown. 

We all know with absolute certainty that when the 
earth was in a state of fiery fluidity, the entire oceans 
of water now on its surface were held suspended at a 
great distance from it. l^ot one drop of the mighty 
waters now surging against the shores of the earth, 
could have remained for an instant on its surface, nor 
in its flaming firmament. This we can all see so plain- 
ly that no one can entertain a doubt upon it. There is 
another known condition that will greatly aid us in this 
argument, when properly understood: the evident dis- 
position of the cooling and contracting earth to absorb 
or draw the waters into its rock-forming crust, as they 



32 The Earth's Annular System. 

fell to its surface. It is not difficult to determine how 
much water or moisture a heated stone of any kind will 
absorb as it cools, so that we can give a reasonable and 
just approximation of the amount of water existing in 
the various rock formations of the globe. Many in- 
vestigators have worked upon this question, and it has 
been found by analysis and experiment that even the 
solid lime-rock contains from one-half to one per cent, 
of water. Coals vary from five to twelve per cent. 
in the amount of water they contain. Iron ores from 
one to six per cent. Some sand-stones contain from 
six to ten per cent., clays much more, while granite, 
mica, feld-spar, and even solid quartz crystals, contain 
moisture in different amounts. 

In our deepest caves and mines, some of them far 
below the ocean's level, water is found running down 
and into the bosom of the earth. This proves that the 
solid crust is still imbibing the waters of the ocean 
with a quenchless thirst, and that coming ages must 
diminish its volume and depth. If no more than a 
single barrel of water is absorbed -in a day, a sufficient 
number of days will cause the solid earth to appropriate 
all the waters on the globe. The question then, what 
volumes of water has the earth already absorbed, be- 
comes an interesting and very im.portant one; one that 
geologists have scarcely considered. 

Dana estimated that the oceans would be 400 feet 
deeper if these imbibed waters were returned to them. 
Many of the Atlantic and Gulf States would be entirely 
submerged. !N"ew York city, Philadelphia, and Xew 
Orleans, would be more than 200 feet under water. 
Three-fourths of the islands of the earth would be sub- 
merged, and a vast portion of Europe and Asia would 



Some General Considerations. 33 

be one great sweep of waters. Then if Dana's esti- 
mate be a true one, and if it be true that all the oceans 
fell to the earth in pre-laurentian times, the general 
depth of the same is less to-day by 400 feet than it was 
then. But Dana's estimate is a very cautious and 
moderate one; and based upon a thickness of super- 
crust of about ^YQ miles, while modern researches have 
demonstrated it to be vastly thicker, — some eminent 
physicists reckoning it as high as 1,000 miles, so that 
if we reckon it to be 100 miles thick and admit the 
rocks to contain one-half of one per cent, of moisture, 
or one-fifth what Dana claimed, the oceans the world 
over would rise 2,500 feet upon the shores of the con- 
tinents; or admitting his estimate of rock moisture to 
be correct, it would be increased to 8,000 feet. 

Hence it must be seen that if all the terrestrial 
waters rolled as a primitive ocean around the earth, 
they have diminished from 2,500 to 8,000 feet in depth 
during geologic times. How many of my readers are 
ready to admit that the primitive ocean was, on an aver- 
age, deeper than it now is? Whatever testimony we 
can gather from the rocky volume, points to the conclu- 
sion that that ocean was very shallow. Hence we are 
irresistibly forced to believe that the oceans fell to the 
earth in great installments. If the seas of the earth 
were never any deeper than now, then 2,500 feet (or 
the 400 feet of Dana's reckoning) fell after the solid 
crust had imbibed that much, and I am inclined to 
think the intelligent reader will yet agree with me, 
that the ocean is now many thousand feet deeper than 
it was even in devonian times, to say nothing of the 
Cambrian age. 

But whatever be the present volume of the subter- 



34 The Earth's Annular System. 

ranean waters and rock-imbibed moisture, it is evident 
that there was a time when the earth did not contain 
them. So that the present waters on the surface of 
the globe, do not by any means represent the great ex- 
panse of vapors that once enveloped it. Let us remem- 
ber this conclusion, to which we are necessarily im- 
pelled. 

But all these revolving vapors fell to the earth, for 
they are on the earth and within it ! and further, every 
pound that fell, by force of impact and actual mechan- 
ical pressure, was registered in the rocky frame of the 
earth as so much potential energy! This fact has 
never been regarded at all by men of science. In an- 
other chapter it will be seen that this energy was con- 
served in mountain-making and plication of strata, and 
that if the materials of the annular system had not 
reached the earth at different geological ages, there 
would have been no general upheaval after the close of 
the laurentian era; — that the mountain systems and 
the continents of the earth are a measure of the stu- 
pendous force expended in the fall of the oceans to 
their present level, and that the starts and mountain- 
making ages resulted from successive installments of 
matter. 

When the waters were held suspended in the primi- 
tive atmosphere, they would move in that direction 
towards which the impelling forces would drive them. 
The centrifugal force of the rotating mass superadded 
to the driving force of heat, was greater in the direc- 
tion of the equator, hence they would accumulate in the 
equatorial regions. Let the reader understand how this 
must have occurred. There being no centrifugal force 
at the poles, the vapors were kept from falling there 



Some General Considerations. 35 

by heat alone; but all other parts of the surface pos- 
sessed some centrifugal energy tending to carry the sus- 
pended matter away from the earth in lines, at right 
angles to the earth's polar axis. This force, to use the 
language of mathematicians, " decreases the weight of 
the sea, which is thereby rendered susceptible of being 
supported at a higher level than at the poles, where no 
such counteracting force exists." * 

!N^ow during the igneous era, gravital force could in 
no sense operate to bring matter back to the earth, 
which had undergone vaporization. Hence centrifugal 
force carried it much farther from the earth and into 
the equatorial heavens at that time than it could to- 
day; for it is evident that if the earth did not rotate 
at all during that era, the vapors would occupy great 
heights of the ancient atmosphere, and the centrifugal 
force then added by actual rotation would cause them 
to occupy greater heights. That is, there were two 
forces operating to keep the vapors away from the 
earth: heat repelling them, and centrifugal force gath- 
ering them, as it were, over the equator, and whirling 
them into rotation with the mass, so that in course of 
time the vapors must have occupied a vast space in the 
equatorial telluric heavens, or firmament. 

Again it is apparent, that whenever the earth cooled 
down, so as to allow the vapors to descend, all that did 
not possess sufficient centrifugal energy to hold them 
on high, would descend to the earth. This was partic- 
ularly the case with all polar vapors, if any were there 
which had not been previously drawn into the equator- 
ial ring. So that the polar heavens became clear of 
primitive vapors and all other matter associated there- 

* Robinson's "Astronomy," page 69. 



36 The JEarth's Annular System. 

with before the equatorial matter could possibly de- 
scend upon the earth. Then it is plain that we have 
arrived at an actual age of the earth, in our investiga- 
tions, when it rolled through space with an annular 
appendage over the equator, while the stars and the sun 
looked down upon its surface as they do to-day, in the 
circumpolar heavens. 

At that age rolled the first-born ocean around the 
earth. From necessity clouds formed and rains de- 
scended, vdnds swept over the earth, summer and win- 
ter, and day and night joined in the round of perpetual 
change; for solar action under such conditions liter- 
ally forced such things upon the young planet. When 
men talk about the ^' heavy," " damp " and " murky " 
air of primeval time, they ignore the fact that pure 
gases are invisible, and all floating particles, as mineral 
and metallic dust or particles of vapor, which render the 
air visible or murky and damp, must fall as surely as a 
flake of snow. If such were not inexorable law, what 
kind of an atmosphere would surround a planet like the 
earth ? 

The same causes operated in primitive times to clear 
the atmosphere as now promote that end. But laying 
these considerations all aside as comparatively unim- 
portant, we have tho^grand feature of that age standing 
out in bold relief, and that feature is the revolving fund 
of vapors composing the annular system. We must 
examine this more minutely, beginning, as before, with 
known features. 

The outer perimeter of the revolving vapors con- 
densed first because that part of the mass was farthest 
removed from the heated earth. But in condensing 
the vapors occupied less space than before. The mass 



Some General Considerations. 37 

revolved eastward, just as the earth rotates. The moon 
fell back westward as it does to-day, drawing the rings- 
yielding surface after it, just as it draws a tidal wave 
westward iu the ocean to-day. ISTow as this tidal wave 
rolls with immeasurable force against the western 
shores of the ocean, it checks to an exceedingly small 
extent the radial motion of the earth. It produced the 
same effect upon the rings. It put a brake, as it 
were, upon the condensing rim of the great revolving 
wheel, affecting the outer surface more than the in- 
terior. But just in proportion as the condensed vapors 
were checked, would they decline inwards, causing the 
segregating particles to form a more dense rim or 
boundary. For their motion being reduced, their cen- 
trifugal force would be diminished, and the gravital 
force comparatively increased, and the rings would 
begin their decline under lunar influence, and never 
cease to approach the earth till the last remnant of an- 
nular matter reached its surface. 

While this condensation went on in the rim, caus- 
ing a contraction of the same upon the interior mass, 
particles next to the rim on the inner side would be 
attracted to it. Thus the condensed rim, for a certain 
distance inward, would gather matter, as it were, from 
below, thus forming a hiatus or division between the 
rim condensed and the great mass uncondensed. Here, 
then, we have the outermost ring of the system. It 
can be readily understood how that it would be impos- 
sible for this ring of vapor to fall in and unite with the 
mass. Every particle of the former having a velocity 
of, say, 24,000 miles per hour, could not unite with 
the rim of the remaining inner mass, revolving 23,000 
miles per hour, any more than two aerolites in adjacent 



38 The Earth's Annular System. 

paths, one moving 1,000 miles per hour more rapidly 
than the other. And never until the first ring had lost 
so much of its motion as to move with the same velocity 
as the mass within, could the two bodies become united 
again. 

The same process continued downwards or inwards 
would form the second ring; likewise the third, each 
separated from its neighbors with certain definite 
spaces or divisions. 

Can any one following the index finger of philosophy 
point out any valid objection to this mode of annular 
formation? When we shall have gone over the geo- 
logical record we will see that the annular system was 
very complex. The number of rings formed was great, 
each separated from the rest as we have shown above. 

Here now we have formed the earth's annular sys- 
tem, but let it be understood that we are not now going 
to build a house upon this foundation — we are only ex- 
pecting to bring a mass of evidence to prove that this 
is the foundation ! We will continually add testimony 
as we go along, and we will not build the house until 
the reader can see an immovable base to build upon. 
We have demonstrated, so far as a physical question can 
be settled by law, that there were waters revolving 
about the earth ! We have shown, as I think, the only 
reasonable mode of annular formation and division. 

Let us turn our glass to the skies. Yonder is a 
bright gleaming orb, nearly 1,000 times as bulky as the 
earth. Around it revolves an annular system. Across 
the vast abyss of nearly one thousand millions of miles, 
we see Saturn's annular appendage, divided into three 
grand divisions, and these divisions each further divided 
into a system of smaller ones. The number is not 



Some General Consider alio us. 39 

known. The clearest and best telescopes exhibit the 
greatest number of divisions, so that it is likely a tele- 
scope of greater power and clearness than has yet been 
directed to it, would reveal many more. So here is a 
world surrounded by a complex system of rings, just 
as reason teaches the earth was at the close of archsean 
time. It is divided as philosophic reasoning proclaims. 
The exterior ring is about 173,500 miles in diameter, 
and is itseK 10,000 miles broad, and the innermost one 
is more than ten thousand miles from the surface of 
the planet. Here, then, we have strong reasons for 
claiming that the process of annular development on 
both Saturn and the earth was the same. Igneous ac- 
tion was no doubt the only competent cause. We re- 
turn to the consideration of our own orb, strengthened 
in the belief that our reasoning is correct. 

The earth^s annular system has fallen, and we will 
now philosophize upon the manner of its declension. I 
have said that the moon put a brake, as it were, upon 
this appendage, just as it now does upon the earth, and 
its effect upon its motion extended throughout the sys- 
tem, from the exterior to the innermost ring, so that 
when condensation and segregation had completed the 
system, it must have declined bodily toward the planet, 
and of course the innermost ring reached the outskirts 
of the earth's atmosphere first. But what would be 
the immediate effect of the entrance of such a body into 
the upper regions of the air ? Slowly it descended, but 
the moment it touched and began mingling with the 
air, its down-progress would be checked. For, however 
rare the atmosphere at that elevation, it was matter 
occupying space, and no other matter, however dense, 
could displace it without encountering some resistance. 



40 The Earth's Annular System. 

This resistance or checking force operating upon the 
vapors in front while they pushed on from above would 
cause them to spread into the form of a belt, and this 
belt would widen and spread from the equator toward 
the poles. When this innermost ring had so far de- 
clined as to be freed from the system, it of course con- 
tinued to revolve for some time more rapidly than the 
atmosphere rotated with the earth. Moving in a greatly 
attenuated atmosphere with an independent motion, 
there would be two forces resisting its fall, viz; Its 
own independent revolving energy, and the resistance 
afforded by; the atmosphere, and this latter increasing 
in a direction toward the earth on account of greater 
density. Under these conditions the newly-formed 
belt would float away from the equator in two divisions, 
one toward each pole, and must have reached the 
earth's surface in regions beyond the tropics, perhaps 
beyond the temperate regions and in the polar zones. 

Now, it is a well-known physical fact, that the gravi- 
tal force is stronger in the polar regions than elsewhere 
upon the earth, from two causes — i.e., the greater at- 
traction, and the absence of centrifugal force at the 
poles. Thus we see, as in the ring formation the vapors 
followed the direction of the greatest driving force 
toward the equator, so in ring declension they returned 
along the same line and fell where there was the least 
resistance. l!^ow the resistance occasioned by centri- 
fugal force is zero at the poles, and gravity is greater 
on this account alone by its ^^-9 part, while at the same 
time the polar world attracts a body about -g-^-g- more 
than the equatorial, so that the two forces combined 
make the gra vital tendency p|-j greater at the poles than 
at the equator. Hence it is evident that a belt would 



Some General Considerations. 41 

fall from the equatorial heavens down to the polar 
world. This will be abundantly proven as we proceed. 
!N'ow we see there must be a division between belts and 
space of time between falls of matter from the annular 
system. 

There is another point in belt declension we must 
now consider. When a belt entered the atmosphere, 
the resistance of the latter would put a brake upon it on 
the inner side and continue to check its motion until it 
reached the earth's surface, or wound up its spiral orbit 
at one of the poles. Hence an equatorial belt neces- 
sarily revolves more rapidly than a polar one, and the 
motion of the polar one more nearly represents the 
time of the planet's rotation than the equatorial; and 
further, the slower motion of a polar belt shows that it 
has been under the resisting influence of an atmosphere 
longer than the equatorial. In other words it shows 
that it fell from an annular system over the planet's 
equator, and has floated away with an actual falling 
motion towards the poles. I state this as a demon- 
strable fact. 

Let us return to view the planet Saturn, and see how 
many of these conditions obtain on that ringed world. 
We first notice that it possesses a number of belts, 
pretty well defined. We see they are separated by visi- 
ble divisions or partitions which necessitates the con- 
clusion that they were separated in the annular sys- 
tem, for we know of no force to separate them after 
they once left the annular and assumed the belt form, 
but rather a tendency to re-unite. But we find that 
the polar belts move more slowly than the equatorial! 
Here, then, are two important links of evidence point- 
ing directly to the conclusion that these belts of Saturn 



42 The Earth's Annular System. 

have descended from the annular form, — that they are 
revolving in the outskirts of Saturn's atmosphere. 

In order that the reader may more fully understand 
the importance of these witnesses, speaking from the 
heavens and bearing emphatic evidence from analogy 
that annular development is a philosophic and neces- 
sary part of planetary evolution, we must more min- 
utely examine the only annular system now visible, and 
also bring in the invaluable testimony of Jupiter, the 
" King of planets " and giant of the solar system. We 
must be allowed the privilege of drawing conclusions 
respecting the former condition of the terraqueous 
globe, from present known condition of her sister 
planets. I believe the birth, growth and development 
of worlds are regulated by inexorable law, and if one 
planet was ever surrounded by rings, a sister planet un- 
der the same circumstances, ruled by the same dynamic 
and static conditions of force, in process of development, 
must also be attended by rings during some stage of its 
career. ISTot that I ignore the fact that circumstances 
varying must vary the resulting phenomena of ruling 
forces, but the great principles of planetary growth 
must obtain on all planets. It is, for instance, as essen- 
tial that ring-formation should follow igneous action, as 
the oblatoidal form of a planet should follow its rapid 
rotation. They are pure results of acting forces every- 
where apparent in the solar system, from the great 
burning, seething and smoking sun, to the utmost and 
smallest satellites. If we can detect this universal dis- 
position in the worlds around us, we may rest assured 
that our own has passed through the same grand cycles 
of change. ]^ay, we may in fact read the geological 



Some General Considerations. 4S 

history of the earth in the ringed and belted worlds of 
the solar system. 

It must now be clear that these features exhibited by 
the belted vapors of Saturn and Jupiter, are vital con- 
siderations. Modern science has established beyond a 
doubt the fact that the motion of their polar belts is 
slower than the equatorial. From this we are forced 
to the conclusion that they revolve nearer their pri- 
maries. 

If those belts could by any possibility increase their 
motion they would rise and revolve in a larger orbit. 
That is, they would move from the poles toward the 
equator. On the other hand, if the equatorial belts 
should lose the smallest part of their motion they would 
sink along the lines of least resistance and greatest 
attraction — i.e., toward the poles. 'Now can it be pos- 
sible in a universe of unchanging law, that one planet 
could become the possessor of a ring-system unless the 
causes that formed it were universal ? Can it be possi- 
ble that the earth, under the influences of these univer- 
sal causes, has not passed through the same mode of 
planetary evolution ? I can no more doubt the univer- 
sality of this process, than I can doubt that an apple 
would fall from a Saturnian or Jovian tree; and when 
we see, that in addition to this necessarily universal 
annular development, the condition of the primitive 
earth demands such development, we are not even 
allowed to entertain a doubt upon the subject. If the 
laws of gravitation be universal, the causes of annular 
formation are also, and effects must follow. It may be 
said unknown conditions may modify the operations of 
the law. Certainly this is true, but they may also mod- 
ify the operations of the law of universal gravitation; 



44 The Earth's Annular System. 

yet, where is the man who doubts its universal applica- 
tion in the midst of all modifying tendencies ? 

From this it must be seen that the mere fact that 
Jupiter's and Saturn's polar belts move more slowly 
than the equatorial, is positive proof that they have 
moved from the equatorial regions, and therefore there 
is a perpetual tendency in the solar system now for all 
loelts to fall at the poles ! Here, then, we are sim- 
ply impelled to admit that the original form of all re- 
volving planetary belts, was annular, and that they were 
located in the equatorial regions of all planets during 
some period of their history. The supposition also that 
these belts must reach the surface of the planets in stu- 
pendous dovmfalls, during intervals of immeasurable 
time, receives here an emphatic avowal. 

Thus by following the path pointed out, by the unerr- 
ing voice of law, we may look upon those giant worlds, 
and read a history of the mighty changes that made our 
world what it is to-day. For unknown ages rings and 
belts attended the earth. One by one they declined 
and reached its surface around the poles. Grand stu- 
pendous arches spread over the face of the firmament 
whea no man was here to see; when the wild denizen 
of a wild world alone roamed its boundless wastes, 
thoughtless of impending calamity. When we gaze 
upon the fearful and terrifying elements, when cloud 
meets cloud, and deep frowns on deep in the battlefields 
of nature, what puny things we are in the wondrous 
arena ! But suppose we dwelt to-day on a ringed 
world, and could see all these features and conditions a 
thousand times intensified! We would stand appalled 
at the fearful grandeur and majesty of world-making. 

We must look at our earth in its spasms and eternal 




Fig. 2. EARTH COOLED FROM A MOLTEX STATE. 

(its KIXG system rOEMED.) 

After the lapse of immeasurable time, the earth had cooled 
doAvn, forming a firm foundation for subsequent deposits. The 
great mass of expelled vapors had condensed. Some of these 
had returned to the earth's surface, forming the first ocean,— 
a world expanse of waters, — and a world casement of sediment- 
ary beds. In that ocean the first forms of life appeared. High 
over the equator, as if anchored to the skies, a vast ring system 
liad formed from the higher and lighter elements, which gravi- 
tated each to its proper place in the system, according to its spe- 
cific gravity. Fig. 2 represents this ringed world, Avith its rings 
turned edgewise to the observer, and the planet covered with a 
universal ocean, that ocean teeming with rudimental life, and the 
sun shining on the earth much as it does to-day. 



Some General Considerations, 45 

revolutions if we would embrace half the meaning of 
annular work in by-gone ages. While rivers flow and 
bear their burdens to the sea, while the all-devouring 
waves prey upon the continents and are unceasingly at 
work in building up strata in the seas and lakes of the 
earth, we must not forget to acknowledge the tribute of 
the earth^s annular system in building up the sedi- 
mentary beds of the planet. 



/ 



CHAPTEK III. 

SOME CONSIDERATIONS EESPECTING SATURN, JUPITER AND 

MARS, AND THE EVIDENCE THEY SUPPLY IN 

SUPPORT OF THE ANNULAR THEORY. 

Saturn is not quite seven hundred times greater in 
volume than the earth, but he is so light, — having a 
specific gravity less than three-fourths that of water, 
that he is only about ninety times as heavy. Proctor 
says: " Gravity at his equator is almost exactly equal 
to gravity at the earth's surface. E'ear the poles there 
is a marked increase in the action of Saturnian gravity, 
insomuch that a body weighiag ten pounds at his 
equator would weigh about twelve pounds at either 
pole.'' It is more than likely that Proctor was mis- 
taken, as it must be conceded that we have never seen 
the actual face of Saturn, and therefore do not know 
how rapidly he revolves. Hence all notions as to the 
comparative polar and equatorial gra vital forces, are 
necessarily vain. He also speaks of total solar eclipses, 
in the latitudes corresponding to those of London and 
Madrid, of five and seven years' duration. But the 
solar orb is never visible to the Saturnians; for, the 
over-canopying fund of vapors must exclude it from 
view. It is, however, easily demonstrated that the in- 
habitants of Saturn, from this very circumstance, are in 
the midst of eternal day, from the total diffusion of 
light throughout his revolving envelope, which from 
necessity becomes an actual light-bearer. All the sun- 
light received by Saturn is poured into his belts and 
rings. Every floating particle of vapor or mineral aids 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 47 

in the total diffusion. And the student in optical science 
will readily understand, how there could be but a sign 
of the alternation of day and night, on a planet sur- 
rounded by vaporous belts and light-bearing zones of 
revohdng matter. 

A planet surrounded by a lofty vaporous atmosphere 
can have but the merest shadow of night while the solar 
beams pour into it. Neither could there be alternation 
of seasons, while the solar heat entered such a revolving 
envelope. Let us examine this a little farther. This 
difference of polar and equatorial gravity is true as to 
the envelope of Saturn, and shows emphatically the 
necessary conclusion that the belts must gravitate to 
the poles in order to fall. Thus, Saturn's equatorial 
belt presses directly downward with a certain force ; but 
its own centrifugal force, and the resisting atmosphere 
prevent its motion in that direction. 'Now at the same 
time, while this belt is equipoised, in md-heaven we may 
say, another force is actually exerted to pull it down 
via the poles. A lateral motion must be the inevitable 
result, and this must end in a universal canopy. 

It is also plain that, if all Saturn's belts, except his 
equatorial one, should fall, the single belt, if large, 
would, in spreading toward the poles, shut out the 
direct sunlight from the surface of the planet. 

Admit a single beam of sunlight in a chamber of mid- 
night darkness filled with steam, and you will see the 
whole room illuminated. The steam carries the light 
into the darkest corner. A jet of water, illuminated 
just as it leaves the hose by the calcium light in the 
midst of total darkness, will appear as a beautiful 
stream of light as far as it can be thrown. Any one 
can perform these experiments for himself, and prove 



48 The EartJi's Annular System, 

to his own satisfaction that watery vapors, snowy par- 
ticles, or almost any floating particles except actual ab- 
sorbents of light, are actual light-bearers. Then a 
great mass of attenuated clouds or vapors, unpacked by 
tempests, high above Saturn's surface and extending all 
around him, one half illuminated directly by the whole 
light of the sun, must inevitably carry the light of day 
around the planet; or even a jet of water projected 
around a planet, would appear as a light-giving ring, 
and if that ring were extensive enough, it would anni- 
hilate night. ]^ot that the parts of the envelope of 
vapor, or jet of water farthest from the sun, would be 
as light or luminous as the rest, but that the columns 
rising from the eastern and western skies, brilliantly 
illuminated and spreading out fan-shaped in the zenith, 
would illuminate the planet's surface. While in the 
case of a wide belt, or a universal envelope, the light 
from the eastern sky would mingle more profusely with 
that from the western, and the illumination would be 
so general that it would be scarcely possible for day and 
night to alternate as we see now on earth. While one 
belt remained in the Saturnian or Jovial heavens there 
could be no true night there. If a single moon shining 
on earth can so nearly dispel darkness by its reflected 
light, that one can some times read common print at 
midnight, what must be the luminous effects of a uni- 
versal light-bearing canopy? — a reflector equal to 
thousands of moons. Even when our atmosphere con- 
tains more floating particles of vapor, or cosmic dust 
than usual, its daylight is sensibly extended ; and we can 
readily understand then how our atmosphere might be- 
come so full of aqueous particles, as to extend morn- 
ing and evening twilight far into the night. But such 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 4:9 

particles in an atmosphere no more extensive than that 
of the earth, could have but small effect compared 
with arching vapors high in the heavens. If we 
could transfer a cloud from the full light of day with 
all the light it contained, into midnight darkness, how 
brilliant it would appear ! How it would illumine the 
clouds around it ! So that in philosophizing upon the 
conditions of our sister planets, astronomers, I believe, 
have erred by neglecting these facts. Let the reader 
note this philosophiQ deduction of perpetual day, for 
it will come in as startling evidence in its proper place. 

One of the strongest points I have to present to show 
that the bands and belts of these giants of the solar sys- 
tem move almost independently of the central orbs, 
is the velocity with which they apparently rotate. It 
is admitted by most astronomers that we cannot see the 
actual surfaces or bodies of these planets. Then it 
must be admitted that we do not know the length of 
a Jovial or Saturnian day. We do know the length of 
a day on Mars, or on Venus, even to the fraction of a 
minute, and we also approximately know the time of 
the rotation of Mercury, and that these three planets 
and the earth rotate in about the same length of time^ 
none varying more than a few minutes from a terres- 
trial day, or nearly twenty-four hours. I^ow it does 
not seem likely that Saturn, about YOO times more 
bulky and ninety times as heavy as the earth, or that 
Jupiter, more than 1200 times as large, and out-weigh- 
ing the earth three hundred times, would, in the same 
system, and under the same laws, rotate more than 
twice as rapidly as any of the four interior planets 
named. It seems inharmonious. If, therefore, we 
should assume the Saturnian day to be about 24 hours 



50 The Earth's Annular System. 

long and knowing its exterior envelope to rotate in 
about 10 J hours, we should find evidence to support this 
assumption, from the very highest authority, my read- 
ers will certainly allow me the liberty of ignoring the 
long cherished idea that Saturn's light belts are his at- 
mospheric clouds, as commonly understood, and his dark 
ones but rifts in the same, revealing the body of the 
planet, as some suppose. If the earth should rotate so 
that a particle of matter on its equator should move 
about 290 miles per minute, a cloud would be thrown 
outward to the very limit of our atmosphere, and be 
impelled to move in an independent orbit about the 
earth. This is so plain that the merest novice in as- 
tronomy must understand it. But Jupiter's clouds 
move at the rate of nearly 4Y0 miles per minute. Such 
a velocity would fling a terrestrial cloud thousands of 
miles beyond the atmosphere, and cause it to move 
around the earth. But a cloud on Jupiter's surface 
weighs about two and a half times as much as on earth, 
so that a simple calculation will show that with the 
above velocity, Jupiter's clouds, whatever they may be, 
are to a great extent independent of the planet so far 
as velocity or rate of radial motion is concerned. That 
is, if the same static and dynamic forces exist upon 
Jupiter as on earth, his bands and belts revolve about 
him. It also follows that there can be no true clouds 
in Jupiter's atmosphere. We know that with such 
velocity, no clouds could exist in our atmosphere, even 
with all the necessary difference of conditions elimi- 
nated. We also know that a cloud placed in the out- 
skirts of our atmosphere must revolve about the earth, 
or fall immediately toward its surface, and occupy its 
proper level. Can Jupiter be an exception? Hence 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 51 

it seems necessarily to follow, that if Jupiter has any 
clouds, they are raised beyond the region of floating 
clouds, and hence beyond the region of storms and tem- 
pests. 

The same conditions maybe predicated of Saturn, said 
conditions differing in character, as the forces existing 
differ in degree. In this planet, however, we have more 
direct and emphatic testimony. So that while Jupiter 
leads us to the above conclusion, Saturn forces us to the 
same. It is well known that this planet sometimes 
presents what is called the ^^ square shouldered aspect; " 
that is, in some parts of his orbit it is not only flattened 
in the polar, but also in the equatorial region.* Some- 
times this equatorial depression extends over 65° to 80°. 
This, I conceive, is readily explained by the planet's 
vapors revolving in ellipses, which they necessarily 
must do. In certain parts of the planet's orbit, we see 
the depressed sides of the ellipse, and consequently a 
flattened equatorial region; and when the major axes 
are more inclined to our line of vision, we see, as it 
were, the ends of the ellipses, when Saturn seems ex- 
cessively flattened at the poles, — ^midway between these 
points, the equatorial and polar regions both are de- 
pressed. 

Thus the annular theory throws light upon one of 
the most inveterate puzzles; one that has for half a 
century perplexed astronomers, and defied solution. I 
offer the suggestion that no other solution can be found. 
The same appearance in a less striking degree is some- 
times seen upon Jupiter. Thus it seems that the two 
planets under consideration, are respectively sur- 
rounded by a vast fund of revolving matter, and that 

* Proctor's " Other Worlds Than Ours," pages 168, 169. 



52 The EarWs Annular System. 

this matter in its motion follows the same laws that reg- 
ulate planetary motion everywhere. 

'Now it is readily seen that this tendency to quad- 
rangular form on Saturn, becomes irrefragable evi- 
dence of annular motion among his belts. But recent 
observations show that the polar belts of both Jupiter 
and Saturn move more slowly than the equatorial. 

But as before shown the simple fact that the polar 
belts of these planets have a slower motion, affords 
irrefutable testimony that they at one time were a part 
and parcel of an equatorial ring system, and that they 
also have lost some part of their velocity since they 
entered the planet's atmospheres, and are therefore con- 
tinually descending toward the poles, and at the poles 
are continually reaching the planet's surfaces. Let the 
reader note this fact. 

Thus away out j'onder, toward the bounds of the solar 
system, we see two giant w^orlds undergoing the same 
stupendous ordeals that in ages gone by, our little earth 
experienced. The heavens speak as with tongues of 
fire, and we hear celestial harmonies proclaim eternal 
law to the utmost bounds of space and time. 

But what are those belts, now revealed by the tele- 
scope ? What kinds of matter constitute those annular 
and belt systems ? Law replies : — " They are composed 
of the same materials in kind, that now compose the 
bodies of the planets themselves." 

Now I suppose no one will dispute the claim that 
Jupiter's belts are, aside from the aqueous matter they 
contain, composed of the very same elements that now 
compose the super-crust of the earth. Then it must be 
they contain silicious, calcareous and carbonaceous mat- 
ter. But if they contain these, they will in time be- 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 53 

come a part of Jupiter^s sedimentary formations, for 
as I have before shown they must fall. It is impossible, 
as any one can see, that such matter should not exist 
in the primeval vapors of every world, and the primeval 
vapors are the last form of matter that descends upon 
an evolving planet. And it must be, as I shall show 
hereafter, that unconsumed carbon occupies a large 
space among all such revolving vapors. 

I ask the simple question. Is there any other escape 
from this conclusion ? Is it not a fact within the com- 
prehension of every one, that if Jupiter's belts contain 
calcium, iron, or carbon, that that calcium, that iron, 
and that carbon, will in the coming ages be located as 
parts and parcels of the sedimentary beds of Jupiter's 
super-crust ? The laws of segregation and gravitation 
are the same, we may safely assert, on Jupiter as on the 
earth. Then as carbon is a constituent, — ^nay, a prom- 
inent constituent of v/orlds, and a fiery burning condi- 
tion a necessary condition of those worlds at some 
time of their career, it follows as plainly as the sun fol- 
lows its course in the heavens, that as all the last de- 
scending materials of those worlds must fall upon their 
surfaces they must and will become a part of the con- 
stituents of the aqueous rocks of every orb that ever was 
enveloped in such vapors. On this eternal rock I stand, 
and though the cruel, heartless elements now gathering 
blackness and fury from the realm of error may sweep 
me from it, this eternal rock will remain. 

ISTow when we have passed over this ground, and sur- 
veyed minutely the close and interesting analogies visi- 
ble on all sides, we seem forced to the conclusion that 
Jupiter once had equatorial rings the same as Saturn. 
But when we turn to Mars, we see his polar ice caps, 



54 The Earth's Annular System. 

we see his floating clouds, we see his oceans, and how 
shall we answer this question ? Were the Martial seas 
always upon his surface ? One moment's philosophic 
reflection must bring the response of " no/' from the 
seat of reason. The over-cautious setiologist may say, 
" we cannot tell." ^ay, but we can tell. The Crea- 
tor of heaven and earth points us to facts that can lead 
us nowhere else, liars is an aggregation of matter, 
gathered and formed into a globe, as countless millions 
of other globes, and formed under the same physical 
laws that governed others, and the earth is a God- 
given key for the mind of man to unlock the whole. 
Man is no more sure that the earth was once a glow- 
ing and burning orb, than he is that Mars was a fire- 
born and igneous planet. Then his oceans were his 
swaddling garments, wrapped about him by the genii 
of the heavens. Though not so extensive as ours, yet 
there are oceans on his surface, and they must have 
fallen thither from the heavens around him. Do not 
understand me to claim that each planet is a represen- 
tative of all the rest in all particulars. Mars may have 
an atmosphere varying from that of all the rest. His 
seas differ in their constituent salts, etc. His strata may 
be different in many respects. ISTay, even the color 
of his landscape may be different from ours. These 
are things that vary under varying circumstances. 
But there are planetary conditions that must obtain in 
every planet. We are forced to the conclusion that 
Mars has an atmosphere ! We would conclude thus if 
we had never detected it. We would be impelled to 
the conclusion that he possessed oceans if we had never 
seen them, just as we are impelled to believe that he is 
under the pale of the law of gravitation; for we can no 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 55 

more ignore one than the other. Men may say that 
a planet's oceans may be absorbed by its beds of rock, 
but one might as well deny that a planet has rock, as to 
deny that it has water. Our moon has imbibed her 
oceans; the earth is doing the same thing; but the fact 
that oceans are thus absorbed has no force at all against 
the claim that all planets and their moons must have 
w^ater in some form about them, upon them or within 
them; and that it fell to their surfaces from annular 
systems. 

We see the same process now on a grand and meas- 
ureless scale in the solar orb. His aqueous vapors must 
be driven millions of miles from his surface. His heat 
is 60 great at the distance of the planet Mercury, 
nearly 37,000,000 of miles from his center, that water 
could only exist there in a state of vapor. We know 
very well in his flaming envelope are glowing, heavy 
minerals and metals, and must conclude that the vapors 
of lighter minerals, etc., sublimed in the solar surface, 
must occupy space far beyond and above the photo- 
sphere, or his atmosphere. The spectroscope leaves 
this beyond a doubt. We all know that analogy re- 
quires that there should be above all other elements, 
a great fund of carbon, surrounding the solar sphere. 
The Titanic furnace that vivifies the solar system, does 
not reveal more than a trace of it in the spectrum. 
Then, it must be so high above the sun's surface as not 
to be detected. We know not how far this carbon fund 
extends. But we do know as comets approach the 
solar orb, they grow brighter, until sometimes they 
burst into actual flames; when the spectroscope re- 
veals the fact that the flames are partly burning carbon. 
But, I think we may safely say, that law demands that 



50 The Earth's Annular System. 

in the solar heavens must be a vast fund of allotropic 
carbon distilled in the solar alembic, and driven from 
this fiery center to float as infinitesimal particles in the 
comet's path; and, finally, when the inveterate fires of 
the sun shall have died out, as they must in time, these 
forms of carbon, with associated aqueous and mineral 
matters, will form into an annular system around that 
great orb. Its aqueous vapors, or light-bearing bands, 
will then form bright portions of the system, and the 
carbons the dark and dusky belts. The sun must be 
a forming world. What other conclusion can the in- 
exorable and universal laws of planetary evolution lead 
us to ? This is simply the declaration of Deity, in- 
scribed in letters of flame all over the universe. And 
with this, is written the glowing command, " Philoso- 
pher, read these lines ! " 

JSTow one retrospective glance. Look at the dark 
and dusky bands or belts of Jupiter and Saturn. When 
we know that these worlds have passed through the forge 
of Vulcan; v%-hen we know that those bodies from their 
inmost depths have been boiling, seething, and tossing 
masses of liquid fire; and that to their inmost depths, 
carbon was one of their prominent constituents, and was 
therefore one of the sublimed and distilled products in- 
corporated with aqueous vapors in an upper ocean, how 
can we avoid the conclusion that those dark belts are 
necessarily carbon? Can we by ransacking the great 
laboratory of nature, find any other element that can 
be made to take its place ? The simple fact stands out 
prominently to the philosopher's gaze, that so surely 
as Jupiter and Saturn have passed through a state of 
igneous fusion, so surely are they now enveloped by 
bands of primitive carbon, in all its allotropic forms. 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 57 

We can no more ignore this fact, than we can ignore 
the fact that carbon is distilled in the smelter's furnace 
in reducing his ores; no more than we can ignore the 
fact that the same products are formed in the retorts of 
the gas-furnace. 

A burning world must be a smoking world ; and from 
its ten thousand furnaces must rise vast volumes of un- 
consumed carbon to mingle with suspended vapors. If 
w^e deny this we are forced to admit that the burning 
or igneous world was enveloped by an ocean of oxygen, 
which runs counter to law. Hence it is evident that 
every igneous world — i.e., every annular system, has, 
or must have had a fund of unconsumed carbon as one 
of its prominent components. Let the reader remem- 
ber this, for upon it depends the solution of a momen- 
tous problem. As I run over this fascinating line of 
thought, I am tempted to enlarge upon numerous ques- 
tions that naturally press into my view. A hundred 
lateral avenues open up, inviting to enter and behold, 
but even a brief consideration of them would swell this 
volume beyond proper limits.* I will, therefore, stop 
short with the consideration of one of these collateral 
questions. 

Jupiter and Saturn have moons revolving about 
them. They are located according to unchanging law, 
at a distance from their primaries measured by their 
velocities and gravital force. These two forces must 
be equal, to keep the satellites in undeviating orbits, 
l^ow it is an indisputable fact, as every mathematician 
or astronomer will admit, that Saturn's annular system 
does to some extent influence the motions of his moons, 

* In the " Vast Abyss," or second book in the annular series, 
these fascinating fields will be reviewed. 



58 The EarWs Annular System. 

and thus aid in defining the shape of their orbits and 
regulating their distance from the planet. To illus- 
trate : A planet attracts a moon, say, with a force equal 
to A, and the latter takes up its orbit or path in harmony 
"with that amount of attraction. If, by some process, a 
ring of any kind of matter should become interposed be- 
tween the moon and its primary, the central attraction 
would be increased, say = to B, and the moon would 
immediately begin to sink nearer to the primary, agree- 
ably to the force A -\- B exerted upon it. If this ring 
of matter arose from the planet itself, it would not in 
the least vitiate the conclusion that the moon was at- 
tracted with a greater force than before; for, it would 
only be a transfer of attracting matter from the primary 
to a point where it could exert a greater force upon the 
moon. If the distance of the moon were 100,000 miles 
from the matter on the planet, before the ring had 
formed, and the ring were then placed within 50,000 
miles of the satellite or one-haK the former distance, it 
would attract it with four times the force it formerly 
did. And the moon, as before stated, would take up a 
position a little nearer the planet. Hence the conclu- 
sion is inevitable that Saturn's moons revolve a little 
nearer the planet because he has an annular system, 
than they would if he had none ! 

What, then, must be the result when Saturn's glori- 
ous appendage declines to his surface ? Simply the cord 
of attraction will be weakened, and the moons will not 
be controlled by the same force, and they will retire, 
and after a lapse of ages they will move in orbits 
farther from the planet. 

Hence the conclusion that a planet's satellite must 
move away from the primary after its annular system 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 69 

sinks is inevitable. 'Now the point gained by this dis- 
cussion is becoming apparent. Eminent astronomers 
claim that our moon is moving away from the earth, 
with a motion very slow, but '' exceeding sure." If this 
claim be a valid one we must conclude that the earth 
once had an annular system which fell and allowed the 
moon to recede. Here, then, we have very important 
testimony bearing upon this point. For, if the moon 
is receding, unless it can be shown that some other force 
could produce this recession, it becomes proof of itself, 
that the earth had such an appendage. 

I am aware that astronomers are to-day making the 
claim that this recession is caused by a reaction of the 
tidal wave upon the moon. (The reader must not con- 
clude that this recession and consequent retardation 
affects the periodical acceleration, and retardation of 
the moon is caused by a change in the eccentricity of 
the earth's orbit.) That the moon is retarded first by 
a check which the progressing or rather swinging wave 
exerts upon it, then she moves away in response to the 
demands of diminished motion. In other words, the 
erudite conclusion is, that if a satellite be checked in its 
motion it must move away from the primary. Then 
the slower the moon's motion about the earth, the 
farther off it must move, and consequently the greater 
its velocity, the less the orbit, which is simply not the 
case. 

!N'ow it is very true that if the moon recede from 
the earth with its present velocity unchanged, it vsdll 
move in a greater orbit, and of course consume more 
time in a revolution; in other words, its motion will be 
apparently retarded. But a satellite cannot recede 
because its velocitv is retarded. Astronomers have 



60 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

misapprehended the nature of the problem. In order 
to show that I do not misrepresent, I will quote from 
R. A. Proctor.* " Delaunay pointed to the tides as a 
probable and sufficient cause of this change, — the great 
tidal wave carried, not bodily, but still swayingly 
against the direction of rotation, checking the earth's 
rotation spin slowly but exceeding surely. Next it 
was shown that, accompanying this change there must 
be a gradual loss of lunar motion, accompanied by 
a gradual recession of the moonJ^ (Italics mine.) 

If this be true, law is law no longer. If a moon re- 
cedes because it is checked in its motion to a slight 
degree, its recession will be greater if the retardation 
be greater, and if the retardation be sufficient to stop 
its motion entirely, its recession will be in a tangent 
to its original orbit. We can make nothing else of this 
astronomical claim; for, let us remember that the tidal 
wave first retards the moon's velocity, — causes a " loss 
of lunar motion," and then it recedes ! Either this or 
the attraction of the tidal wave causes it to recede. 
With all due regards for the noble minds which have 
been puzzled over this problem, I must say astrono- 
mers are mistaken. 

If a satellite's motion be retarded it will decline 
toward the central body, and the greater the retarda- 
tion the greater the decline, until it falls to the prim- 
ary. But if a satellite recede by loss of attraction from 
the central body, it takes longer to perform a revolu- 
tion. Hence we say it is retarded, though it move as 
rapidly as ever. If it moves inward on account of an 
increase of attraction, it revolves in a smaller orbit, 

* " Eclectic Magazine," May, 1882, taken from " Contemporary 
Review." 



Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. 61 

and consequently in less time, and we say its motion is 
accelerated, though it move no faster than before; for 
it is plain that if it should move faster it would have 
increased centrifugal force, and go off into a greater 
orbit. 

If astronomers are correct in this view, then the 
moon must in time leave the earth entirely. If they 
are correct, there was a time when it was so near the 
earth that its oceanic tides were reared mountain high 
and made to sweep over the continents twice in twenty- 
four hours. But I beg leave to say that this does not 
seem, by any means, to be the declaration of the geo- 
logic record. The learned Dr. dewberry has shown 
how erroneous this conclusion is, by a thorough and 
complete survey of the geologic past. 

What cause, then, must we assign for the moon's re- 
cession ? I cannot call it " retardation." , It can recede 
only by a decrease of attraction from within; for an 
outward attraction would only cause a local perturbation 
susceptible of self-correction. A comet might cross 
its path, and for a moment exert itself to check, or in- 
crease its motion, but these ephemeral visitors are harm- 
less as a puif of wind, and if they should check the 
moon's velocity, it would decline, not recede; and if 
they should increase its motion, it would recede, with- 
out showing retardation. Where, then, can we find a 
competent cause for the recession of our satellite? If 
it be not in the fall of the earth's annular system, 
then, I presume, it can never be found; and concerning 
this problem, the universe will be as voiceless as death. 
The conclusion then is simply overwhelming that the 
earth once had an annular system. Let us now give 
our attention to this. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE GEOLOGIC RECORD EXAMINED. 

Having shown that the prevailing idea maintained 
by geologists in all their reckoning and conclusions, — 
i.e., the idea that the ocean of water now on the earth 
fell in its entirety before the aqueous crust was formed, 
is necessarily erroneous; in short, having established 
the annular theory upon a foundation peculiarly 
strong, it certainly demands a respectful consideration 
at the hands of thinking men, even if no further proof 
' existed. 

To go over the geologic record regularly, and point 
out all the important features, directing to the order 
and condition of things here hypothecated, would fill a 
large volume of itself. I will, therefore, take up some 
of the most important ones, — those also most familiar 
to and most likely to be comprehended by the ordinary 
reader. 

I have made the claim that the earth's annular sys- 
tem was necessarily a complex one. If the igneous 
earth had been hot enough to vaporize and suspend 
water only, then it is plain that the great primeval at- 
mosphere would have contained those vapors only. But 
those vapors themselves must have contained dissolved 
silex and quartz, from the fact that hot water and hot 
vapors will dissolve it. But as we well know the heat 
of the primitive earth was immensely greater. Then 
it is certain that its atmosphere must have contained 
whatever else was vaporized and suspended therein; and 
thus under law, when the atmosphere became cool, it 



The Geologic Record Examined. 63 

deposited upon the earth what it contained in the heated 
condition. So that when I advance the claim that 
much of the sedimentary beds built upon the lauren- 
tian and older rocks were simply precipitates from the 
annular system, all must see that it simply is impossible 
that such should not be the case. So surely as hot 
vapors can contain more mineral matter than cold, so 
surely did the cooled vapors of the primeval atmosphere 
deposit vast quantities of mineral matter on the earth 
when they fell to its surface. 

JSTow all the fusible and vaporizable minerals in the 
earth's crust must have existed to some extent in the 
upper vapors; just as all the minerals and metals in the 
sun must be represented in the heated vapors around 
it. And every other hot and burning world must ex- 
hibit the same thing. Let any man reflect, but for a 
moment, and he must admit that the present state of 
physical science demands an unqualified assent to this 
claim. 

There were calcium and oxygen and carbon in the 
primitive atmosphere. Then there was carbonate of 
lime; and these elements existing in measureless 
abundance, necessitates a vast amount of the carbonate 
in the system. There were iron and sulphur. Con- 
sequently these also existed in the upper ocean, as me- 
tallic and mineral salts, and it simply seems impossible 
to avoid the conclusion that the annular system was 
a vast ocean of homogeneous and heterogeneous matter. 
By a more laborious and critical examination this 
conclusion would assume the phase of a positive dem- 
onstration, but I need not burden the reader with it 
now. A certain degree of heat in the burning earth 
kept the aqueous vapors suspended on high; a greater 



64 The Earth's Annular Sysicin. 

degree of heat sent up, in their order of fusibility, the 
minerals and metals of the earth, as they bubbled up 
as vapor from a boiling crucible. For the present, ad- 
mit this conclusion, and as we proceed the necessity of 
it will be apparent. 

How would this vaporized and suspended matter 
arrange itself, as the earth cooled down and the mass 
contracted? Obviously the heaviest and densest mat- 
ter — the heaviest minerals and metals — would locate 
more largely in the innermost part of the system, or 
nearest the earth. Doubtless all kinds of matter, even 
metals to some extent, must have remained dissemi- 
nated throughout the system; but bulk for bulk, the 
inner part must have been the heaviest, because laden 
with the more refractory metals, etc. For instance, the 
innermost ring must have contained more iron than 
any other ring of the same bulk, while at the same time 
iron particles of a different state of purity, because of 
certain combination, and consequent of varying gravity, 
must have existed in all the rings, except, perhaps, the 
outermost one, which must have been nearly free from 
metals, but vet must have contained distilled carbon 
particles of the lightest form as soot sent up from the 
smoking earth. Hence when I make the claim that 
the deposited minerals and metals in the earth's crust 
follow an order of arrangement which was chiefly de- 
termined by annular arrangement in the nebulous 
atmosphere, the reader must see what kind of order it 
must be ! 

We will suppose that the innermost ring of aqueous 
vapors and their associated matter, comprising all mat- 
ter within the limits of 20,000 miles, fell after the 
earth cooled down. But if it fell, it fell because it had 



The Geologic Record Examined. 65 

not sufficient revolving momentum to keep it above; 
while all matter still farther from the earth had more 
momentum and must have remained longer in the an- 
nular form. But this innermost ring, when it reached 
the earth, and mingled with the terrestrial seas, pro- 
duced an augmentation of the oceans already thereon, 
and the iron and other heavy metal contained therein, 
must have formed beds at the bottom of the seas, as an 
actual precipitate or sediment, and consequently much 
of the earliest sedimentary rocks must, if our theory 
be true, contain the heaviest minerals and metals of 
the crust, and also in the purest form ! Is it necessary 
for me to bring forth evidence to prove that this is the 
actual state of affairs ? Every geologist knows full well 
that this is the case. He knows that the archsean beds 
— the oldest formed that have met the gaze of science 
— are above all others, eminently metalliferous; and 
that in those beds the metals are in the purest state! 
Why ? Iron Mountain and Pilot's Knob, the grandest 
accumulations of iron upon any continent, are beds of 
nearly pure iron, planted amid laurentian piles. In 
this foundation lie the heaviest masses of lead and 
galena ore. The copper, iron and other great deposits 
of Lake Superior and Canada are in the same old beds. 
In short, wherever these old beds are found there you 
will also find the metallic beds. And, moreover, they 
are aqueous, or sedimentary beds ! Dana says, " These 
rocks are universal.'' They are the metallic sills of the 
earth. They form a mighty casement, or metal band 
around the world. Can this fact be philosophically 
explained without the aid of the annular theory? 
This iron and this copper and silver and gold, etc., were 
distilled in the fiery furnace of the primitive earth, and 



66 The Earth's Annular System. 

sent up amid the aqueous vapors on high. What else 
could have planted them in strata of aqueous beds? 
What else could have made them so nearly pure ? What 
else could have made metallic beds in the outside of 
the earth? Let him answer who can. 

Since we have found amid the old sedimentary beds 
the very products of primitive distillation which our 
theory demands, and found, also, in the very condition 
it requires, and since we can find no other source at 
all competent, we are simply forced to conclude that 
the first ocean that fell to the earth must have been 
strongly impregnated with iron and other heavy metals. 
They are precipitates from water. But how was water 
impregnated with them except through the aid of in- 
veterate heat and the annular system? The present 
distillation of iron by the aid of vegetation proves only 
one thing, viz: that if such a puny combustion can 
dispel it, the primitive fires of the earth must have 
done immensely more. The processes are the same, 
differing only in degree — ^the work of combustion, one 
puny and almost powerless, the other stupendous and 
titanic. 

Thus we may look back through the vistas of time to 
the primitive and immeasurable age of change, when 
the first ocean rolled its mineral-laden waves around 
the earth. In course of time it deposited its load upon 
the earth. It was a casement of immense thickness, 
requiring an immensity of waters, much of which we 
must conclude was absorbed into the rocky frame of 
the earth as its fires retired within. 

It is now apparent that just as we enter on the 
threshold of this investigation we must meet with the 
very features our theory requires; but there is much 



The Geologic Record Examined. 67 

more in this geological horizon. In the northern hem- 
isphere the archaean beds are heaviest toward the north. 
iNow if thej were thickest and heaviest near the equa- 
tor, the annular theory would fail to explain it; but 
a moment's reflection must show that it does explain 
its northern development, as no other theory can. 

Immediately upon the decline of an equatorial ring 
into the lofty region of the attenuated air, it is at once 
converted into a belt, and it gravitates toward the 
poles, the points where gravity is strongest and centri- 
fugal tendency zero. Hence it must follow that but a 
small part of the annular system fell in the equatorial 
world, but more largely in the temperate and frigid 
zones. E^ow the geological world well knows that the 
archsean beds are conspicuously heavier in northern 
lands ; and another condition necessitated by our theory 
is found, just as we want to find it. It is this kind of 
evidence that will in the end establish my claim upon 
a rock that nothing can shake. It is plainly evident 
that if all the primeval vapors fell in archsean time, as 
geologists claim, then all the matter that impregnated 
them must have been deposited in a heterogeneous 
mass, and not in distinct beds as we find them. There 
simply could not be those grand and stupendous beds so 
characteristically different from all subsequently 
formed strata if the conditions were then as in subse- 
quent times; and philosophic geology demands the very 
conditions I have pointed out, in order to account for 
the relationship of beds formed in different ages. 

But now, in order that the common reader may be 
able to understand the points here made, let us admit 
all the upper vapors to have descended before the be- 
ginning of paleozoic times, and therefore from one 



68 TJie EarWs Annular System. 

vast and boundless expanse of waters a mighty bed 
of precipitated materials fell and formed the azoic 
beds. This is plain enough. And then all subsequently 
formed beds were torn away from these earliest beds, 
and placed elsewhere. This is also plain, and is every- 
where admitted by geologists. It is a conclusion forced 
upon us, as an inevitable result of the above assump- 
tion. Then the silurian beds came from the pre- 
existing beds. But is there a geologist who, after hav- 
ing examined the silurian formations of the world at 
large, and the archssan beds wherever exposed, would 
say the former are the debris of the latter, unless forced 
to such a conclusion by his fatal assumption ? By what 
natural, or even miraculous process could the azoic 
strata give rise to such a casement of silicious beds, as 
is well known, forms the base of the silurian in almost 
all lands? By what natural process was crystallized 
silica torn from among the carbonates of lime and dolo- 
mites and metallic strata, and deposited around the 
earth mthout depositing the lime, metals and other 
minerals in the same beds ? Now, if the Potsdam sand- 
stone, and its equivalents in other lands, were formed 
from the ruins of other beds, the ruins don't show it. 
But we will let this matter drop. Let these sub-silurian 
beds be the ruins of pre-existing beds, placed as a 
mighty covering around them, thus sealing them away 
from the ocean's devouring waves. But now with this 
covering, how did the silurian waters get their lime? 
Did the same waters that before robbed the archsean 
piles of their silica, and disdained to touch their lime, 
now after those piles were covered up, begin to rob 
them of their lime and refuse to touch the silica? 
They either did this or they robbed the silicious beds 



The Geologic Record Examined. 69 

at the base of the silurian of what they never had, 
i.e., the stupendous fund of silurian lime. This matter 
will not be rendered a particle more philosophic by ad- 
mitting that the great silurian beds were derived from 
terranes now buried in the depth of the sea. For it is 
scarcely possible that continents once the highest 
should sink and become the lowest. But we will let 
this subject rest too. Let it be admitted that the silu- 
rian waters did obtain their lime somehow from the 
archsean beds. E'ow let us see how this occurred. 

The lime in the archsean strata is more largely mag- 
nesia than otherwise, and therefore the first silurian 
lime must also be magnesian! But it is not! What 
are we to do ? The lime beds nearest the basic beds of 
the silurian, at least on the American continent, are 
almost pure carbonate of lime. How did the silurian 
waters work through its silicious fundamental beds to 
the dolomites or magnesian lime, and then taking them 
up deposit them as carbonate of lime ? ISTow, geologists 
very well know that this is very wrong. But the diffi- 
culty is immeasurably increased when we find that after 
thousands of feet of lower silurian beds were laid down, 
and among them the heavy carbonates, I say after- 
wards, high up in the series, we do find an abundance 
of limestones so highly magnesian in character as to be 
denominated dolomites. These facts are too plain to 
be buried. They stand as mountains across our way. 
The facts are simply these, and no man will deny them : 
if it were possible for the silurian beds to be the ruins 
of archaean terranes, they are not laid down in the order 
demanded by law ! The carbonates where the dolomites 
ought to be, and vice versa. How did the upper lime 
beds or dolomites get where they are? If they were 



70 The Earth's Annular System. 

originally built up among the archsean, and covered 
up with thousands of feet of carbonates and silicious 
beds, how did thev ever get out? And why did they 
not get out when they might have done so — ^i.e., before 
other beds locked them down forever ? 

HerCj again, the annular theory gives a felicitous 
explanation. The waters from which the silicious beds 
were deposited contained this silicious matter as a min- 
eral distillation, before they fell to the earth; and the 
waters from which the carbonate of lime was deposited 
contained that lime when they were on high. The 
ocean from which it was precipitated was strongly im- 
pregnated with carbonate of lime, and must have ob- 
tained that lime when the vapors were hot. But the 
ocean which built up the magnesian lime-beds of the 
Silurian was a different ocean, and made so by addi- 
tional waters from the annular system. This is abund- 
antly attested by the extermination of species, which al- 
ways shows a new environment. 

When every intelligent man must know that if the 
earth was in an igneous condition, the matter composing 
these beds, or at least such matter, must have been ex- 
pelled from the telluric furnace, and that such matter 
— matter that had never been formed into continental 
beds — must have settled somewhere in the ancient 
ocean, it is the merest folly to claim that all the mat- 
ter of the aq^ueous beds was derived from .pre-existing 
beds by aqueous denudation. 

There was, no doubt, in all ages denudation and 
transfer of native material in the formation of beds, 
but we must not forget that during all these ages a fall 
and precipitation of exotic matter — tellurio-cosmic mat- 
•ter — aided in the work ! It is easy to understand that 



The Geologic liecord Examined. 71 

if the Silurian dolomites had been placed next to the 
dolomitic beds of the laurentian, the annular theory 
could have had no support, and would be easily over- 
thrown by the fact. But since they are placed just 
where philosophic geology demands, and yet where the 
current theory utterly fails to explain, geologists must 
yield their claim. 

We have here, then, the strongest circumstantial 
evidence that all through these early ages, the upper 
vapors were falling to the earth and depositing their 
contained matter upon it. Thus independently of our 
mathematical demonstration we so far see that the 
geological history, in its very dawn, declares the essen- 
tial facts of the annular theory. 

Having then, as I claim, laid the foundation of this 
view, in such a way that no one will attempt to attack 
it, who has a particle of regard for law, we will move 
across the mighty abyss of time that rolls its dark flood 
between the azoic and the present, and lay another 
foundation on this side the stream, and then we will 
erect the super-structure intended to span the mighty 
void. 

It is plain, that if after having shown that the earth 
had an annular system in the very dawn of the ages, 
I should also show that after man came upon the earth, 
some remnants of that system still remained on high, 
then the whole geologic world was built up largely 
under its influence; that is, that the earth possessed 
rings and belts throughout all the geologic ages. 

We will briefly sum up the conclusions hitherto 
deduced from the firmly established and generally ad- 
mitted fact, that the world once passed through the 
ordeal of fire, or igneous fusion. 



72 The Earth's Annular System. 

1st. All terrestrial waters were held in suspension 
during that age of inveterate heat, far removed from 
the surface of the boiling, flaming and smoking mass of 
the earth. 

2d. This suspended ocean of vapors, rotated as a 
part and parcel of the earth — a primeval atmosphere 
of great complexity of materials — in the same time 
that the earth then rotated, just as our present atmos- 
phere now does. 

3d. This suspended matter in the course of time 
gathered in the earth's equatorial heavens, and upon 
condensing necessarily contracted and segregated into 
rings, which revolved independently about the earth, 
thus causing a great lapse of time between the descent 
of the first, or primitive, ocean of water nearest the 
earth, and those waters most remote in the annular 
system. 

4th. The waters remaining on high, after the in- 
terior waters or first ocean fell to the earth, fell in a 
succession of stupendous cataclysms, separated by un- 
known periods of time. 

5th. The first ocean was necessarily impregnated 
with mineral and metallic salts, or filled with mineral 
and metallic particles to a far greater extent than any 
other section or division of waters or exterior vapors, 
for the simple reason that in the system the heaviest 
vapors would settle lowest or nearest the earth as it 
cooled down. 

6th. All such changes required a great length of 
time, and a progressive motion of declining matter from 
the equator, polar-wise ; also the bands and belts of the 
earth's annular system necessarily presented the same 
general aspect that Jupiter's and Saturn's do to-day. 



The Geologic Record Examined. 73 

7th. A succession of concentric rings necessarily 
requires a vast lapse of time between the declension 
of one ring of vapors into the outskirts of the atmos- 
phere, and the fall of the next succeeding one; so that 
each fall, or each ring, after it reached the attenuated 
atmosphere, continued to revolve as a belt about the 
earth with an ever-decreasing velocity as it spread 
toward the poles and over-canopied the earth. 

8th. The smoke or unconsumed carbon that arose 
from the burning world commingled with the upper 
vapors, darkened them, and formed inevitably, dark 
bands or belts among bright vaporous ones, as we now 
see on some other planets. 

9th. After a ring of vapors had fallen into the air, 
it is likely that it may have over-canopied the globe 
and finally descended to the earth, leaving the atmos- 
phere clear, before another ring reached the atmos- 
phere in its persistent decline. 

10th. The apparent retardation of the moon is but a 
gradual recession of our satellite, caused by diminished 
attraction as the annular system declined, and the 
necessary check put upon the revolving rings neces- 
sarily caused them to sink and finally fall to the earth, 
if no other cause of their fall existed; and further, this 
retardation proves the former existence of an annular 
system about the earth. 

11th. The archsean metalliferous deposits are so 
located as to be inexplicable by the old theory of aque- 
ous denudation, but beautifully in accord with the new. 

12th. The silurian beds, and particularly the order 
of their occurrence in the earth, utterly refute the idea 
that they were derived from pre-existing beds. Hence 
it is evident that during the silurian age there was an 



74 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

annular system about the earth. In other words, it 
is evident that all the primeval waters did not fall be- 
fore the dawn of life on the globe. 

I here present a chart of the igneous earth and its 
surroundings, immediately after the heaviest mineral 
and metallic vapors — which gathered more largely near- 
est the earth in the system — had fallen, leaving a space 
of about 20,000 miles between the rings and the surface 
of the planet. (This vacant space, marked as 1, we can 
scarcely make hypothetic, as it must seem to be a neces- 
sity in annular formation.) The light parts of the 
system represent aqueous vapors, and the dark rings 
vapors darkened by the presence of unconsumed car- 
bon, that necessarily arose from the burning sphere as 
smoke. Eing 2 represents the heaviest forms of car- 
bon, as graphite, etc., which, according to law, gathered 
more largely among the innermost vapors than else- 
where. Ring 3, the silurian vapors heavily charged 
with calcareous and silicious matter, and from which 
the silurian beds were almost wholly derived during a 
vast lapse of time. 'No. 4, vapors of the devonian, car- 
boniferous and permean seas, heavily charged with car- 
bon, hydro-carbons, etc. No. 5, tertiary and cretaceous 
vapors, containing the lighter forms of calcareous and 
carbonaceous matter. No. 6, the vapors of the quarter- 
nary, containing the lightest form of carbon, now 
mixed with the glacial drift of the world and impris- 
oned in polar ice. IN'o. 7 represents the aqueous vapors 
of the Edenic period, and the ]N"oachian deluge. 

Imagine the innermost section of ring 1 to decline 
from the system into the atmosphere and gradually 
spread over the terrestrial heavens, in its effort to reach 
the poles, remembering that all such movements eon- 




Fig. 3. EARTH AND ITS ANNULAR SYSTEM. 

Fig. 3 represents a full-face view of the earth and its annular system. Here o is 
the earth, 6 the earth's atmosphere, c the heavy carbons and their accompanying 
mineral sublimations, d the lighter carbons and hydro-carbons, e glacial snows and 
their accompaniments, / outer vapors, principally aqueous and likely in a frozen 
state. From this outermost ring came the polar snows that chilled the Eden earth, 
and afterwards caused the deluges of Noah and Deucalion, and still later caused 
those sporadic incursions of canopy scenes so vividly shining to-day from all ancient 
Bcriptures, sacred and profane. In these outermost rings a vast quantity of gold 
vapors, sent as fire mist to the skies, condensed and forming into nuggets, flakes, 
flour-gold, and the like, fell in polar lands with the snows as they fell and must to-day 
be found in and on the very glaciers that lock down that once semi-tropic region in 
the grasp of eternal winter.* 

The inter-annular spaces of this figure represent similar features in the ring system 
of the planet Saturn. These are probably filled with invisible air,— an annular 
atmosphere. 



♦ I have more fully elaborated the annular origin of polar gold in my "Alaska, 
Land of the Nugget. Why ? " and also in " Ophir's Golden Wedge." 



76 The EarWs Annular System. 

sume a vast length of time, and we may be able to con- 
ceive how very often the earth must have been over- 
canopied as with a greenhouse roof, and how very fre- 
quently during the geological ages the earth became 
a greenhouse world, with intervening periods of flood 
and desolation. How very frequently the oceanic 
waters were changed in constitution, and their volume 
and depth increased. How very much the sedi- 
mentary beds were increased in amount by catastrophic 
additions. But here again let me remind the reader 
that I do not claim that these additions of exotic matter 
built the aqueous strata, but that they greatly aided 
in the work of denudation and transportation of mat- 
ter, and that hence the time of buildiag beiQg greatly 
shortened the ages could not have been of so great 
duration as we have generally supposed. 

A critical examiQation of the aqueous strata will 
show that they were planned according to the order 
here represented. 



CHAPTEK V. 



HISTORIC TESTIMONY. 



I have intimated that the views I have advanced 
could not be more strongly supported by the voice of 
science than they are vindicated by the claims of his- 
tory. Yet were I to urge biblical evidence to the 
front, because of my conscientious regard for the 
sacred writings, it would be assuming a greater authen- 
ticity for such testimony than many of my readers are 
willing to concede. Therefore, in order that it may not 
be said that I place undue value upon any evidence 
herein advanced, I will put these writings for the time 
being on the same level with profane history, however 
my inclination rebels at the thought. Such evidence, 
then, as I glean from Genesis, will in this argument be 
of the same value as it would be if found in the writing* 
of Pliny, Tacitus or Herodotus. 

The question now to be considered is: Did any part 
of the annular matter continue to revolve about the 
earth until after man came upon it? If I succeed in 
showing that some of those revolving vapors remained 
on high, and were perceived by man, then the question 
will be forever settled, and almost every physical and 
metaphysical science will have to be reviewed. For it 
will show that every form and phase of geologic life has 
so depended thereon as to be modified thereby. It will 
show that the earth's ring-system, anchored in the ter- 
restrial heavens, when this planet was in its infancy, 
continued to act the part of a mighty world-carver 



78 The Earth's Annular System. 

throughout all geologic time, and lent its titan energies 
in building the wondrous piles of aqueous beds — the 
debris of continents and ruin of rings. If the last rem- 
nants of the system came down upon the earth in mod- 
ern times, man would certainly have conveyed the in- 
telligence down to the remotest age, by history and tra- 
dition, and the account, if true, would harmonize with 
law. 

Then let us suppose that to-day a fund of annular 
matter were revolving about the earth. In order to 
remain in the firmament it would have to revolve more 
rapidly than the earth rotates upon its axis, and if it 
were in the outskirts of our atmosphere the resistance 
of the latter would drag it into belts, and as I have be- 
fore shown, it would begin an exceedingly slow polar- 
wise motion, in its efforts to reach the earth. It would 
thus in time over-canopy the earth, forming a universal 
aqueous roof, becoming a clearly defined and well- 
kaown appendage. 

Man could not fail to know the nature of that ap- 
pendage, and seeing the waters already on the earth, 
and seeing other waters on high, as the source of all 
waters, he would naturally call the two waters by dif- 
ferent names — waters here, on earth, and waters yon- 
der, in the sky; or, waters above and waters below. 

Is it not a little remarkable that almost the first an- 
nouncement made by the Hebrew historian is a positive 
declaration that " God made the firmament," or aerial 
expanse, " and divided the waters which were under the 
firmament from the waters which were above the firma- 
ment. And it was so ? '^ (Gen 1 : 7.) We are simply 
given to understand that the writer knew there were 
two bodies of water — one above the earth and in the 



Demonstrated hy Historic Testimony. 79 

sky, and the other under the sky or firmament, or on 
the earth. N^o amount of torturing can make this pass- 
age mean anything else than the simple fact that a 
fund of waters revolved about the earth. The merest 
child knows that no material substance, vaporous or 
meteoric, could remain in the terrestrial firmament for 
one moment, unless it revolved about the earth! 
Science settles this question at once and forever ! so that 
our historian, when he made the declaration that the 
firmament, or Hebrew atmosphere, became an expanse 
between two bodies of water, one of which was on high, 
and the other on the earth, could not have predicated 
the fundamental truth of the annular theory in more 
positive terms. Had he said, " We now behold a great 
deep, or fund of aqueous matter moving rapidly around 
the earth,'' he would have said nothing more than he 
did. The fact that the waters were above the firma- 
ment demands most positively that they should move 
rapidly around the earth, with a motion of their own. 

How wonderful the thought that the store of sacred 
history should be opened by the grand conception of a 
revolving deep ! Let the doubter for a moment pause 
upon this threshold of a new world, and ask: Why is 
this announcement the very thing demanded by law? 
He has been schooled in the belief that the earth was 
once a burning world. Then he sees one of the grand 
results of that condition; and he must inevitably see 
that here on the first page of interdiluvian history is 
shadowed the very fact science has led him to believe; 
for, if the earth ever passed through the ordeal of fire, 
there was a time when there were waters above the 
earth, and waters on the earth. If the historian had 
here followed the line of thought that an impostor in 



80 The Earth's Annular System. 

this twentieth century of the Christian era would da 
he would have said: In primitive times, directly after 
the earth cooled down, all the aqueous vapors de- 
scended to the earth, and from that day to this no 
waters have been added to the ocean's volume. Over 
this the intelligent reader would stand confounded ia 
his attempts to harmonize the different statements. As 
we proceed it must be plainly seen that the penman 
would have inextricably involved himself in the plain- 
est stultification. For the sun would have been made 
visible in the same primitive age, and must have ren- 
dered contradictory and false nearly every subsequent 
statement, as will be seen. On the other hand, the 
plain, simple announcement of upper waters is in har- 
mony with law, and in harmony with the entire thread 
of the narrative from beginning to end. Let us see. 

Thus we begin our investigation of Genesis, with the 
announcement, remarkable for strength and simplicity, 
that some portions of the terrestrial waters did remain 
on high, until they were recognized as such by man. 
We see that announcement in utter harmony with 
philosophic law, and all men must then give it the credit 
of honesty and truthfulness, though it were the declara- 
tion of a Moor, or a Hottentot. 

As we proceed we find truthful witnesses clustering 
around and supporting this great central fact. Eight 
here we learn that " light " came in and garnished the 
heaven before the sun was seen. (Gen. 1: 3, 4.) This, 
again, is the demand of law. The upper deep over- 
canopied the earth, hiding the sun, but revealing his 
light by the laws of universal diffusion among the 
vapors.. Suppose the writer had said, the " sun now 
came into view." He would then have contradicted 



Demonstrated ly Historic Testimony. 81 

himself on the first page of history. For it is plain 
that no sun could appear except as a great display of 
light through the revolving deep. These two state- 
ments, then, are co-linked together as important wit- 
nesses to the truth of annular formation. JSTeither of 
them can be true unless the earth then had an upper 
fund of waters — a great deep beyond the firmament. 
How does it happen that this dove-tailing of facts sup- 
ports the very claim which could be so easily refuted if 
a single contradictory statement were made ? 

What was the name of that expanse of waters? 
The waters on the earth " were called seas." (Gen. 
1: 10.) Then it is evident that the " deep '' referred 
to in Gen. 1: 2 was not the waters on the earth, but 
the waters overhead. This is also evident from the 
wording of the entire verse. The writer says the earth 
was void and vacant — ruin and waste — and then turns 
his attention to the heavens, and says, " And darkness 
was upon the face of the deep.'' As all men believed 
that God dwelt in the sky, or had his throne established 
upon the upper side of a solid floor, called heaven, we 
can easily understand why the writer said: " The 
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and 
said: ' Let there be light ! ' " That light burst in from 
the heavenly sphere and illumined the upper deep. It 
would not at all comport with man's idea of the power 
and nature of Deity, to suppose that his spirit moved 
on the surface of the " seas " and said, " Let there be 
light." But if we now take the only philosophic view, 
viz. : that man knew there was a great " deep " on high, 
and " seas " on earth, and first described the condition 
of the earth, then the condition of the sky, and the man- 
ner in which the Deity, " brooding on the vast abyss," 



82 The Earth's Annular System. 

or deep of heaven, called in the rays of the solar orb, 
vre see again astonishing harmony. The writer of 
Genesis, seeing the great deep above the firmament, 
and knowing, from some source, that all the waters on 
the earth came from that deep, tells ns, first, the earth 
was once ^^ without form and void " ; then adds this 
simple statement that " darkness was upon the face of 
the deep,'' when he must have referred to the waters 
above, which is a declaration in favor of the revolving 
vapors ; and when he again states that the " spirit of 
God moved upon the face of the waters," while he must 
have known, or believed, that the D.eity moved and 
lived on high, is another statement, simple and plain, 
that a fund of waters revolved about the earth. Thus 
we have two simple announcements in the second verse 
of the first chapter of Genesis, that the earth had an 
annular system recognized by man; and again in the 
fourth and seventh verses it is twice declared, and more 
positive and emphatic. And again, in verse nine, God 
said: " Let the waters under the heaven be gathered," 
etc. Why is the expression under used, unless it be to 
distinguish the " seas " from the " deep " ? and another 
link connects this mysterious history in philosophic and 
harmonious accord with law. Five times declared, and 
each time by different means, before haK a page is 
written ! It is not a reiteration or tautology, but a sim- 
ple statement of five different conditions of the sur- 
roundings of the ancient world! And each of those 
conditions predicates an annular fund of waters. I care 
not whether the historian be an impostor or servant of 
the Most High, one thing is plain: the very nature of 
these statements forces conviction upon the philo- 
sophic mind. These links of evidence were not penned 



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Demonstrated by Historic Testimony. 83 

in order that a man in this twentieth century should 
prove the truth of a theory; and yet they point with 
such unerring certainty to this grand and fascinating 
field of thought that it seems as though the penman had 
himself reveled therein. But let us see further. If 
it be true that man thus recognized the upper waters, 
then he lived in an environment consequent upon that 
condition, and all the natural phenomena of the inter- 
diluvian world must have had some relation to the 
same. If there was a fund of water or vapors above, it 
must have affected all conditions of life until it fell to 
the earth. The sun could not be seen as it now appears, 
until the heavens were cleared of vapors. 

In a subsequent part of this volume I will prove that 
the heavens became cleared at the time of the deluge, 
and therefore the sun did not and could not have been 
seen clearly until after that event. 

Now let us examine a few more links of evidence 
gleaned from this fruitful record. Gen. 1 : 14 to 19 re- 
veals the fact that the " lesser " and " greater '^ 
" lights " made their appearance in the heavens on the 
fourth day of creation. Laying aside all other consid- 
eration one thing stands out boldly to view — i.e., the 
sun, which physical science declares had existed for 
measureless ages, did not appear in the terrestrial sky, 
until after the earth brought " forth grass and the 
herb yielding fruit." Then it is plain that some inter- 
cepting canopy cut off the direct rays of the sun. But, 
as before stated, no such canopy could exist in such a 
position unless it had the form and motion of revolving 
rings or belts. Thus again the plain statement that the 
" lights " did not appear until the fourth day is a sim- 
ple declaration that during the first, second and third 



84 The Earth's Annular System. 

days, at least, the earth had an annular system! Sup- 
pose the narrator had said the sun, moon and stars ap- 
peared on the first day. In that case nothing could be 
more easily done than to prove him an impostor. But 
the statement that the lights did not appear till later 
harmonizes with law — with the previously made state- 
ment that there were " waters above the firmament,'' 
with the demands of the annular theory — an upper 
deep. 

But the reader will notice that he does not state that 
the sun and moon made their appearance on the fourth 
day, but simply ^^ lights." The Hebrew word from 
which the term is derived does not mean sun, nor moon, 
and evidently refers only to diffused light. The He- 
brew words from which these are derived are not used 
till after the deluge, when the sun was known by man 
to be both a " lighter " and a " heater." The names, 
then, sun and moon, not being used, it is evident that 
they did not even, on the fourth day, appear as they 
now do, but simply as ^' lighters," illuminating the 
vapors. " Let there be lights ! " Why did He not say, 
" sun and moon ? " Surely, because the sun and moon 
were not yet unveiled. 

But the writer did use the term " stars," which in 
almost all ages, according to law, must have shone in 
upon the earth from the polar heavens. Thus we have 
mirrored one of the essential features of the annular 
theory: that the vapors fell largely at the poles. Dur- 
ing the prevalence of the upper vapors the polar skies 
must have been cleared again and again, permitting the 
stars to shine upon the earth from those quarters. 'Now 
a little reflection must convince the reader that the 
scriptural statement that the " great lights " and " the 



Demonstrated hy Historic Testimony. 85 

stars also '' appeared on the fourth day, conveys the 
very idea our theory demands. If the terms sun and 
moon had been used the statement would have contra- 
dicted the statement just made, of upper waters, and 
would in turn have been contradicted many times in the 
succeeding narrative. But why this harmony — ^this 
unity of evidence ? The fact that the term stars is used 
argues that the term sun would have been used if that 
luminary could have been seen. 

Perhaps the reader now begins to understand why 
the author was so particular, in a former chapter, in 
his comments on the motions of the belts of Jupiter and 
Saturn — i.e., their polarwise decline. Belts could not 
revolve long in the polar heavens, and would neces- 
sarily fall, clearing the circum-polar skies and admit- 
ting the stars. Here we see this necessary condition re- 
ferred to in Genesis. I can conceive of no reason why 
the name stars should have been used and the names of 
the two most prominent luminaries entirely overlooked 
by the historian, unless the stars were seen and the sun 
and moon were not seen; and as this is the very feature 
our theory demands with emphasis, the question is most 
conclusive. 

Thus, again, we have to face the fact that the 
" waters above the firmament '' had not yet fallen. 
The fact, also, that no mention was yet made of their 
fall argues that they yet remained on high. Thus every 
step we take leads to a grand confirmation of our views, 
and in turn substantiates the narrator's account in a 
way most complete and remarkable. 

But the most remarkable and conclusive evidence is 
yet to be examined. If the waters above still remained 
on high, and prevented the sun from shining down upon 



86 The Earth's Annular System. 

the earth as it now does ; if it yet had appeared only as 
a ^' lighter/' its heat must have been diffused among the 
upper vapors, and the earth's surface could not have 
been heated up by its direct rays, but the whole earth 
under the over-canopying vapors must have been 
warmed, and its temperature and climate equalized by 
transmitted and diffused solar heat; just as a green- 
house is warmed by sun's heat transmitted through a 
painted glass roof. Xow this is no vain or idle conclu- 
sion; but so surely as the sun's light and heat were dif- 
fused among the upper vapors, at the period alluded to, 
so surely was the earth under a greenhouse covering, 
and possessed of a climate and temperature harmoniz- 
ing therewith. The conditions, then, that must have 
obtained in such a world are substantially these, viz: 

1st. There must have been a greenhouse tempera- 
ture and climate prevailing over the greater part of the 
earth. 

2d. There could not have been storms and tempests 
as we now have on earth; for the reason that all such 
phenomena are caused by sun-power — sun-heat falling 
directly upon the earth's surface. Winds and storm 
must have been reduced to a minimum; and what is 
more, rains must have been infrequent, if they could 
possibly have occurred at all. This certainly is Law. 

3d. The solar-beam shorn of its active power, it must 
have been an age of rest to the earth. There could not 
have been the alternation of seasons as there now is. 
Winter and summer would cease to alternate, and there 
would be one perpetual seed-time, and one perpetual 
harvest. 

4th. Man living in this universal greenhouse would 
naturally harmonize with his environment, and during 



Demonstrated by Historic Testimony. 87 

that day when solar actinism was shorn of its strength, 
he must have experienced remarkable longevity; for, it 
must be remembered that upon solar energy depends 
every form and phase of life on earth ! ! 

I^ow let me call attention to a few simple statements 
in the second chapter of Genesis. The first we notice 
is the well-known declaration that there was a day — 
an age of rest. " And God blessed the seventh day and 
sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all 
his work," etc. (Gen. 2: 3.) Can the human mind see 
any meaning at all in this remarkable announcement, 
except through the light of the annular theory? Did 
God, the Creator of all things, ever rest from His 
labors, except those pertaining to the earth and seen by 
and familiar to man ? Did the planets cease to move, 
the suns cease to burn ? Did the solar ray cease its eter- 
nal work ? Did the clouds cease to move, the rain cease 
to fall, the seasons cease to alternate, except as looked 
upon by man shut in from the universe by a stupendous 
greenhouse roof — by the waters above? All phe- 
nomena of nature were looked upon by the infant race 
as the immediate work of Deity. If the sun could 
not heat the earth's surface, then that much of the 
work of Deity was suspended in the estimation of 
man. Then clouds could not form, and tempests could 
not rage, and that much of God's work ceased in the 
eyes of the human race. Then winter could not chill 
the earth with his icy breath, and the race would see 
another labor suspended. Fountains and rivers and 
streams, reduced to minima, would almost cease 
their labors. In short, if this world was ever enveloped 
by a fund of vapors " above the firmament," it was 
characterized by a condition of universal rest! And 



88 The Earth's Annular System. 

this is apparently the only possible manner in which 
the God of heaven and earth could have rested. Man 
sav7 these things reduced to this condition as an aI)so- 
lute necessity arising from the presence of the upper 
deep. And we are again simply compelled to admit the 
truth of our theory; for, the God of nature — the God 
of the infant race — could not possibly have rested if 
the earth had not at that very time a canopy of vapors 
revolving about it. !N'ow it can be readily seen that if 
our author had said that God never rested from His 
labors, his statement, if true, would have overthrown, 
the annular theory at once and forever. How grand 
the thought, then, that the very condition demanded by 
it is proclaimed as immaculate philosophy, shaming the 
mockery and scholastic bigotry of the world ! Beauti- 
ful, indeed, the concept that the Great Creator presents 
to the human race, in its greenhouse cradle, a Sabbath 
typical of that glorious rest prepared for the people of 
God, where the physical sun will be again shut off, and 
the " Lord God and the Lamb " will be the light of the 
spiritual world. 

But what is most remarkable and overwhelming is 
the fact that we scarcely have finished our contempla- 
tion of the physical Sabbath, which, above all things, 
necessitates a windless, stormless and rainless age be- 
fore we are told that it was a day when the " Lord God 
had not caused it to rain upon the earth." (Gen. 2 : 5.) 
Such harmonious features must strike the reader with 
amazem^ent. Every one must see that if there ever was 
an age in which the earth was not watered by rain it 
was windless, stormless and winterless! We cannot 
avoid this conclusion by any human possibility. And, 
again, we are compelled to admit, however unwilling 



Demonstrated hy Historic Testimony. 89 

we might be, that it was an age in which the sun did not 
and could not shine directly upon the earth — i.e., that 
the earth's upper waters still revolved about it. At first 
sight, perhaps, the reader might not think there is much 
in this. But we must remember that here is a statement 
of a physical fact, and if we had read it in Ovid only 
the fact would be the same: that if it be a true state- 
ment — if the earth was not watered by rains, but by " a 
mist " — then the sun's heat was intercepted, and then 
there was an intercepting body; and since these harmo- 
nious statements are all dove-tailed into unimpeachable 
testimony we are led to believe that this history is the 
most marvelous ever penned by the hand of man — a 
history of the earth while yet under the far-reaching 
influence of the last remnants of its annular appendage. 
The last ring of vapors in some form had so far declined 
into the terrestrial atmosphere, as to spread over the 
earth in its effort to reach the poles; for the last time 
the sun was again shut out of view. Kains for a short 
geological period ceased as they had done many a time 
before ; for, it must be remembered, that this was only 
one of many similar changes through which the earth 
passed, and which left their records on its rocky frame. 
The tiny rain-drop has left this testimony upon the liv- 
ing rock. Certain rock-formations say in positive 
terms that ages before this clouds marshaled their 
forces in the heavens as they do now, and others are 
equally emphatic that rains had again ceased, and the 
earth was a world of verdure unbroken by the reign of 
winter and storms. 

But independently of all these considerations we all 
know that the warm greenhouse climate of the Eden 
world is boldly set forth by the writer or writers of 



90 The Earth's Annular System. 

Genesis. There was a warm climate, for man dwelt 
naked upon the earth. (Gen. 2: 25.) The infant race 
must have been nurtured and cradled in a greenhouse 
world. There was a paradise — a garden in which all 
manner of trees grew, and where all animals named hj 
the Adamite lived. Then that garden was the Edenic 
or greenhouse world, l^ow what could have made this 
greenhouse world? This rainless earth? Just pre- 
vious to this the world was bound in the icy fetters of 
the mighty glacier — a sea of universal snow and ice; 
then it was blooming and lovely, fit abode for the hu- 
man race in its infancy. It is plain that no feature of 
the Adamite period is more strongly painted and em- 
phasized than the warm climate of the Eden worlds 
Then another claim of the annular theory is here 
vindicated. The very climate necessitated by the over- 
arching waters, is positively and emphatically set forth; 
and we add another link of evidence to the great 
chain.* 

Another thing, set forth in language too plain to 
be misconstrued is the great longevity of man in ante- 
diluvian times. People lived to be 800 or 900 years 
of age. ]^ow it seems to me I need not tell the philo- 
sophic world that if members of the human race at- 
tained the age of 800 years, it was primarily because 
of a modification of solar energy. And as this subject 
will be fully treated upon in another volume, I will 



* Here I feel strongly inclined to follow up the Edenic narra- 
tive of which there is not a feature that cannot be beautifully 
explained by the new theory. But it would require a volume to 
do it justice. If Providence favor, it will be set forth in a future 
day. Meanwhile, the reader may run over this fascinating field 
and anticipate the inevitable result — the abandonment of the 
vain and unphilosophic idea that the Garden of Eden was a local 
paradise for infant-man. 



Demonstrated by Historic Testimony. 91 

merely refer to the fact that man's physical environ- 
ment in antediluvian times, simply impelled long life; 
and as his longevity diminished immediately after the 
upper deep fell, and the sun began to pour his beams 
upon the race, it is evident that his environment 
changed with that event ! In a few generations after 
the flood man died at the age of 120 or 100, and, finally, 
at " three score and ten.'' When we place these facts 
together, we find in man's great longevity another im- 
portant link of testimony. Man could not have lived 
800 years if his environment was then as it is now. 
Then it is plain that his environment changed at the 
time of the flood. But the narrator tells us that the 
rainbow was then placed in the cloud ! (Gen. 9 : 12.) 
Then it is a fact that cannot be disputed, that the sun 
came into view more clearly at that time, and the en- 
vironment was changed because it came. 

The inference, of course, is that the rainbow was not 
seen by antediluvian man, which is one of the very 
things the annular theory claims. The sun could 
not shine through the annular vapors, or there could 
never have been an Eden world. It could not shine 
upon the earth, or it must have rained in Edenic times. 
It could not shine upon the earth's surface because 
God had placed the deep " above the firmament," and 
man lived 800 or 900 years, because of certain solar 
chromatism and actinism effected by vaporous absorp- 
tion. The death-dealing properties of the solar beam 
were sifted out as they entered the revolving vapors. 
But I cannot too strongly press upon the reader the 
emphatic and conclusive evidence of the rainbow. If 
it came into view at the close of the deluge there is 
no possible escape from the conclusion that the fall of 



92 The Earth's Annular System. 

waters cleared the terrestrial heavens of annular 
vapors ! Of this more in another place. 

I have said that the antediluvian world was almost 
free from winds and storms. It was free from them 
l)ecause all such phenomena are children of the sun- 
beam. Then it is plain that when the heavens were 
cleared, and the sun shone directly upon the earth's 
surface, the winds of the earth must then have received 
their directing impetus. Surely, then, if it had been 
recorded that winds came into play in the economy 
of nature immediately after the deluge, contem- 
poraneously with the rainbow, the author of Genesis 
would have advanced overwhelming evidence in favor 
of the truth of the theory I advance; and at the same 
time invest himself in an armor glittering with the 
priceless gems of Truth; giving value and importance 
to his history that is accorded to no other ancient 
book. Will not my readers fully grant this? Would 
it not have been a glorious summation of the argument 
in support of the annular theory? But stop! Have 
we forgotten that at this very time, when the glorious 
bow was painted on the clouds, or spanning the new- 
born skies ; at the very time the " fountains of the 
great " celestial " deep were closed,'' and the " windows 
of heaven were stopped," " God remembered I^oah," 
said the historian, " and made a wind to pass over the 
earth." Do we need more and stronger testimony to 
plant our theory upon a rock that no man can shake ? 
Can evidence be more overwhelming than is found in 
this grand array of stubborn facts ? One glance at the 
circumstances under which this wind occurred, the 
£rst that is spoken of, and perhaps the first that man 
ever saw, will, must convince the philosopher that it 



Demonstrated iy Historic Testimony. 93 

was a remarkable one indeed! The winds of this day- 
herald the rain. They bring on the rain, and the storm 
dies away in the calm quiet of the equipoised elements. 
But that was a rain from the fountains of heaven, and 
when it ceased the sun shone down on the desolated 
earth! At that moment, all the air-currents began 
their eternal round. The trade-winds then began their 
beneficent offices. One-half the earth was then 
warmed by the sunbeam, that for centuries had no 
power upon it; and when we consider the stupendous 
force thus expended, we can no longer wonder that the 
wind was looked upon by man as the conqueror of the 
flood. ]^ow the simple fact that it came after the raia 
makes it a remarkable anomaly, and proves that the 
flood came from exterior waters. 

It can be readily seen that if the wind had occurred 
as it now does previous to the rain, that it would have 
forever crushed our theory. The fact, then, that so 
many harmonious links of evidence join in its support^ 
must give it overwhelming and crushing weight. 

But what about the eternal summer of the Edenic 
world? As the annular theory claims that summer 
and winter could not alternate as they now do; as the 
absence of the bow points to the same fact; as a rain^ 
less world- demands the same; as the Edenic narrative 
from beginning to end enforces the claim that the 
earth was characterized by endless summer; there can 
no longer be a doubt that such a state of things really 
existed. I presume that a perpetual summer, necessi- 
tated by a modification of solar actinism, as it operated 
only through the upper vapors, necessitated long life; 
but did the writer of Genesis know this, and did he 
state that man lived 800 years because he had stated 



94 The Earth's Annular System. 

that it had not rained ? Did he state it had not 
rained because the Edenic day was a day of rest ? Did 
he state, '^ God rested/' because he had stated the sun 
was not seen, when there was light? Did he give the 
whole narrative, in this grand and inexpressible har- 
mony, with the important declaration, that there were 
^^ waters above the firmament " ? ^Now every one 
must see that all these circumstances, conditions and 
phenomena, are emphatically necessary results of the 
presence of upper waters; and that not one of them 
could naturally have obtained if there were no such 
watery or vaporous roof on high. And, since eternal 
law demands, independently of all history or tradition, 
that the God of nature did place a fund of waters 
above, how many of us will now put no more confidence 
in Genesis than in Herodotus? It is as plain as the 
noon-day sun that the absence of the rainbow in inter- 
diluvian times demands the existence of upper vapors, 
which the first stroke, almost, of the historian's pen 
places on high; and that nothing else can explain its 
appearance at the close of that appalling debacle of 
overwhelming floods. But tell me, did the author of 
Genesis designingly state this remarkable truth in 
order to confirm a dozen previous statements, every one 
of which is planted on the rock of the annular theory 
— the waters above the firmament? Every philosopher 
must know that there is not a particle of truth in this 
Tainbow question, except in this light — and in this light 
it shines as one of the sublimest truths ever penned. 

But I repeat, what about the perpetual summer that 
this condition of interdiluvian things imperatively de- 
mands? this non-existence of perpetual change in the 
seasons, which the very presence of an over-arching 



Demonstrated by Historic Testimony. 95 

fund of vapors requires? Is there any intimation in 
this fruitful history that points to a stormless age, — a 
-winterless world? Man dwelling naked in his Eden 
clime, says in plain language, there was no alternation 
of summer and winter. His great longevity is unim- 
peachable evidence in favor of the claim; and the 
physical sabbath, or day of rest, joins in the har- 
monious chain of testimony. This eternal summer, it 
must be seen, is necessary to make the harmony of the 
historian's account complete. 

But it must also be admitted by every intelligent 
reader, that if such a climate and conditions of seasons 
-existed before the deluge, the fall of waters must have 
made a sweeping and far-reaching change at once. 
Eternal spring or summer must have changed in a very 
short period, to alternating summer and vdnter, etc. 
"Now if the narrator had even remotely intimated that 
such a change took place at the close of the deluge, 
such intimation would certainly be admitted as strong 
evidence in favor of this theory of the deluge. Espe- 
cially when coupled with the other new phenomena 
and changes introduced, as before mentioned, it would 
be taken from the pages of profane history as evidence 
pecuHarly strong, because of its harmonious union in 
the great chain of testimony. It is then with supreme 
satisfaction that I turn to Gen. 8: 22, and read in plain, 
simple terms the very intimation the philosopher would 
expect and desire to find. 

The earth had been desolated for the last time by 
supra-aerial floods. The survivors of that appalling 
visitation were introduced to the new environment and 
ordinances of the skies ; when momentous changes were 
instituted, and new decrees were set forever. J^ature's 



96 The Earth's Annular System. 

philosophic sign of eternal security, bright and glori- 
ous, spanned the new-made firmament. Then the 
voice of nature proclaimed in the heart and mind of 
man: " While the earth remaineth, seed-time and har- 
vest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and 
day and night, shall not cease." * It was the voice of 
God, proclaiming through " nature's vast cathedral,'' 
a momentous revolution. Can it be, that the erring 
voice of tradition even, to say nothing of the unerring 
voice of law, would have said that summer and mnter, 
etc., should forever alternate after the deluge, if they 
had been alternating before ? Can this announcement 
be made to mean anything at all, if it point not back 
to the greenhouse clime of the pre-diluvian period, 
when the earth was dressed in the verdure of eternal 
spring; when seed-time and harvest did not alternate, 
but one perpetual seed-time and one perpetual harvest 
were the familiar characteristics of the habitable earth ? 

It would seem that this would be the proper place 
to refer more largely to these things; and especially to 
the nightless period of the Edenic world, when both 
" evening and morning were day," — i.e., coalesced into 
one period and called day; but I cannot do this with- 
out extending this volume entirely beyond its intended 
limits. 

E'ow turn one backward glance, and behold the 
ground on which we have passed. See it thickly 
strewn with evidence all pointing to the upper waters, 
predicated upon the first page of Genesis. ISTote the 
indisputable fact that all these things proclaim a 
deluge to come in the ordering of J^ature's God. !N'ote 
the additional fact, that pointing to a deluge, they also 

* I am inclined to render the Hebrew, " Shall cease no more." 



Dem^onstrated ly Historic Testimony. 97 

point beyond it, to a radical change after the flood, 
which change in turn points back to the grand cause 
of all, the annular waters. But one change that took 
place because of a fall of waters would stand as strong 
evidence of that great cause. What, then, shall we 
say of all the changes that followed the deluge ? Why- 
did the bow come then? AVhy did man's longevity 
decline at that time? Why did the anomalous wind 
come at that time? Why did alternating seasons 
come into play after a deluge ? These things must be 
explained by philosophic law; and I stand under the 
protecting wing of science to proclaim that philosophic 
law declares that these things, individually and col- 
lectively, demonstrate that the antediluvian world was 
over-canopied by the annular waters. 

It can now be seen that the very manner in which 
these statements are made, adds great force to their 
testimony. They all harmonize and point to one cen- 
tral thought. E'ot one contradicts another, and the 
final close is the magnificent triumph of the historian, 
whose unvarnished statements are each demonstrable 
by inexorable law. 

It must be seen at a glance, that the manner in 
which light came down, as declared in the third verse 
of the first chapter of Genesis, predicates the existence 
of upper waters, so does the " dark '' " face of the 
deep '' as before referred to. But upper waters pre- 
dicate a deluge. Consequently a deluge is indirectly 
announced and prophesied by both these statements. 
Then immediately following them comes the positive 
statement in the 7th verse, that there " were waters 
above.'' 

I care not who penned these consecutive statements. 



98 The Earth's Annular System. 

They are from their very nature pure truth; rendered 
doubly pure and refined by the philosophic requisition, 
that each separately, and all combined, declare that a 
deluge must come. And the last statement becomes 
a keystone in the arch of testimony; for every man 
must know that such a fund of waters could not have 
existed without pointing to a deluge to come ! Did a 
deluge come? Independently of every other consid- 
eration, I am bold to say, if the earth has not been 
deluged again and again, then every leaf of the geologic 
record is a lie ; then the molten earth has no con- 
clusion, there can be no fires in the universe, no suns 
of flame; for law is law in every nook of creation, and 
if solid matter fell to the earth, and formed its mass, 
so did its waters fall upon it as the last remnants of 
annular matter. With this mass of evidence pointing 
to a deluge, we will next see how true to these indica- 
tions there came a terrible fall of waters from the 
" great deep " on high. 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE NOACHIAN DELUGE. 

A professor from one of the first institutions in this 
country once declared, as he no doubt conceived to 
the discredit of biblical history, that " no one but a 
D.D. now believed there ever was a deluge.'' It was 
well said ! To the deathless honor of the " D.D.'s " 
may it always be said, they stand for the testimony 
and the law! I have shown in the foregoing chapter 
that every feature and phenomenon of the Adamite 
age point to a future deluge as an utter and absolute 
necessity. Let the reader re-survey the statements 
made in reference to the heavens and the earth, the 
divisions of waters, the ^^ stars," and the " lighters " ; 
the light of the first, second, third days; the day of 
rest; the Eden world and its climate; the rainless 
period, when the whole surface of the earth was 
watered by a mist only; * man's longevity; the " giants 
of those days ; " the absence of the rainbow, etc., etc., 

• " But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the 
whole face of the ground." (Gen. 11: 6.) I understand that by 
this process the whole earth was watered. It must seem to him 
who critically examines this statement^ that here is another 
philosophic sequence of the ruling of upper waters in that long 
day of physical rest. As the earth rotated, one-half of it must 
have been more directly under the influence of diffused solar heat 
for half the time; during which, one half of the atmosphere 
would absorb aqueous matter from sea and land, and during the 
remainder of the time the atmosphere being carried by rotation 
Bomewhat beyond solar influence into the " cool of the day," 
would water the earth with excessive dews or mist. Yet there 
are strong reasons for claiming that one half the day presented 
a scene of rising fog, and the other of descending mist. But we 
must always bear in mind that annular vapors were continually 
saturating the air on high, and would thus add to descending 
« mists." 

LofC. 



100 Tlie Earth's Annular System, 

and if possible draw any other conclusion than that this 
earth, in the ordering of nature, was fated for a com- 
ing fall of water. What is more natural ? And what 
natural visitation could be more appalling, far-sweeping 
and destructive, than this inevitable dispensation? 

I presume the biblical narrative of the flood is in 
the possession of every reader of these pages and I will 
therefore not insert it here. 

The first impression given to the reader of the 
Mosaic account is the universality of the falling waters, 
which of course necessitates an annular source. 

Can the philosophic mind, as it contemplates this 
great world of law, conceive of any source in the order- 
ing of the God of ISTature, from whence such a stu- 
pendous downfall of waters could come, other than this 
most natural one ? A rain from the mighty " deep " 
alone could thus have swept the earth. And when we 
contemplate that there is a volume of water now on the 
earth, and in its rocky frame, sufficient to make a 
thousand terrific deluges, — every one of which could 
drown the world of living beings, and which has fallen 
to the earth, necessarily as stupendous cataclysms, — how 
can we reasonably expect that this historical and tra- 
ditional narrative can refer to any other than the clos- 
ing scene of annular declension? Let us reduce the 
extent of this great debacle of waters to the lowest 
minimum this narrative will allow, then take into con- 
sideration the well known fact that there scarcely is a 
nation, tongue or tribe on earth that has not a tradi- 
tion of this great event, and yet we will fail to find any 
existing source of such a rain. Study the biblical ac- 
count of the flood, and tell me, did that rain descend 
from the clouds? 




Fig. 5. THE LAST CANOPY OF EARTH. 

Here is our Last Earth Canopy. It has banished the last ice period, and the Eden 
earth blooms again. Biblical and legendary man dwells naked in a warm and genial 
world. The human family, the world over, for unknown time look up to a watery 
heaven and give it a name signifying that condition. The Hebrews called this 
heaven Shamayim, "there waters"; the Greeks called it Ouranns, " water heaven"; 
the Hindus called it Varuna, " water heaven " ; the Latins called it C€elvm, and this, 
too, was a watery heaven, for it passed away. So did the heaven of the ancient 
Egyptians, .Japanese, Scandinavians and Mexicans. 

But the Last Earth Canopy must fall. It opens at the equator (e, e), and the 
vapors slowly float to the poles, and begin to fall. Again, as in ages gone by, 
snows begin to chill the earth. The sun shines in upon the equatorial earth through 
the opening and air in that region rises. This starts air currents from the poles 
and these currents bear the falling vapors back toward the equator, thus making 
one long-continued downpour of waters in medial latitudes. So, in the windup of 
canopy influences, there must be not only a vast accumulation of snows at the poles, 
but long-continued and devastating floods in warmer lands. 

Those snows now cap the poles. Those floods have sent their immortal witnesses 
down the ages, and they speak from the sacred pages of our fathers and in the songs 
and legends of the whole earth. The last canopy having fallen, heaven has made a 
new and eternal covenant with earth, and the Bow is the eternal Testator. 



The Noachian Deluge. 101 

Is it not a demonstrable fact, that if the clouds were 
its source, eternal law was suspended ? Is this the or- 
der of nature ? Is this the administration under which 
worlds are evolved ? We cannot admit the fraction of 
law in the universe of God ! But if the deluge did not 
come from the clouds, then it came from beyond, or 
above the clouds. And again we are compelled to call 
in the annular waters as the only competent source. 
Let us analyze the account a little more minutely. Is 
there any intimation in the narrative itself that the 
Noachian rain did not come from the clouds? There 
certainly is, not only an intimation, but unmistakable 
and positive declarations, that the clouds did not and 
could not have supplied such a rain. Gen. 7: 11 tells 
us that that rain came from a source that was " broken 
up " at the time the waters fell; that it came from the 
cataradae of heaven — from the " fountains of the great 
deep," through the imaginary " windows of heaven." 

If we will but reflect that at that time mankind be- 
lieved that there was a great deep on high, from which 
all rains descended, that the Deity resided in that part 
of heaven and presiding over its fountains, watered 
the earth through windows opened for that purpose, 
we cannot avoid the conclusion that the sacred pen de- 
scribed this great event, true to the indications, and in 
absolute harmony with facts. But the annular 
theory demands the same conclusion. It requires 
that the source of the deluge should have been ^^ broken 
up " at that very time, for it does not now exist. And 
any one can see, that if that rain came from beyond 
the clouds, it came from revolving waters or vapors; 
and also that no fountains or source of floods could have 
been " broken up," except such a source. A little 



102 The Earth's Annular System. 

thought here must settle this question in the philosophic 
mind. 

Again, we are told over and over, in the eighth and 
ninth chapters of Genesis, that there will be such floods 
no more forever. Then it is impossible for such rains 
to occur again, and then we are forced to admit again, 
that the source has been " broken up." But no source 
of floods can be broken up but the source of annular 
floods ! If the " fountains of the deep " were on the 
earth or in the " seas," then they are not " broken up." 
If they were in the clouds, they are not. If that source 
has not been destroyed we are under the same precar- 
ious reign of floods still; and no physical assurance 
whatever protects us from their recurrence. Thus, ac- 
cording to the annular hypothesis, the declaration is 
positive and unmistakable, that man is forever safe 
from a deluge; that the waters can ''no more become 
a flood " to " destroy all flesh " — the very same 
declaration made by the historian, and which certainly 
has no significance except in this light. 

Again, the annular theory declares to all races of 
men under heaven that an eternal covenant is made 
between them and their Creator, and that the rainbow 
is an everlasting token of the same, just as the biblical 
account maintains. The two must agree, as they must 
in every particular, for both are the voice of nature. 
These wondrously harmonious facts! What mar- 
velous truths unfold to view in the resolution of these 
once mysterious statements! What stronger evidence 
can vindicate a theory ! They are the adamantine sills 
upon which the true theory of creation is planted for- 
ever. 

Now we know that a devastating flood did visit the 



The Noachian Deluge. 103 

earth in the human period, and we know its all-compe- 
tent and philosophic source. " In the 600th year of 
Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the 
month, the same day were all the fountains of the 
great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were 
opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and 
forty nights." 

It seems to me there cannot be a man of reason who 
cannot see in this declaration the earth's annular waters 
emphatically portrayed. For what reason have men 
concluded that the ^' great deep " here mentioned 
was the great ocean-fund on the earth? Why should 
the imaginary " windows of heaven " be opened to let 
down the waters, if those waters were located in the 
fountains in the earth? Let us imagine ourselves 
placed in the same situation as the ancient human race, 
fully believing there were fountains of waters on high, 
over which the Deity presided, and which were the 
sources of descending floods or rains. Then let us see 
the same heavens they saw, cleared of upper vapors, — 
veritable fountains of the deep. Would we not under 
the same circumstances see that those sources of falling 
waters " were broken up ? '' And further, knowing 
that the bow could not be seen if any of those vapors 
remained on high, and seeing it painted on the skies, as 
an actual sign that such vapors had all fallen to the 
earth, would we not have said, " ITo more deluges can 
occur; " and this, the bow, is a token of the same? 
Would we not have penned an account of this dispensa- 
tion, just as the ancient historian did? Unless we ad- 
mit this as the true rendering of this wonderful narra- 
tive, what can we make of it? What reason, what 
philosophy can be found in it ? 



104 The Earth's Annular System. 

Do we not know full well that no such terrific rains 
could possibly come, in the order of nature, from any 
other source than from that beyond the clouds, where 
inexorable law put the fountains of all descending 
waters in primitive geologic times; and whence all the 
waters now on the earth must have fallen? The idea 
that the great deep of Genesis was or is the terres- 
trial ocean, is a post-diluvian one, and necessarily arose 
from the fact that our oceans, after the upper one had 
fallen, became the only one man saw. Could I place 
before my readers the vast array of facts that may be 
drawn from the antediluvian and interdiluvian myth- 
ologies in support of the universal belief that the 
heaven, the home of deities, was a region of abundant 
rivers and fountains, of oceans traversed by golden 
ships, etc., they would never doubt the Hebraic idea 
that all rains were given by Jehovah of the Gods, 
drawn from celestial fountains, and poured down upon 
the earth through the " windows of heaven.'' The old- 
est Hebraic histories teem with this idea. The greiii 
Psalmist says, " Praise Him ye waters above the heav- 
ens," " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy 
water-spouts.'' Mankind formerly believed that the 
clouds of post-deluge times were filled from a great 
fund of waters above them; and this was especially so 
among the Hebrews. (See Job 26: 7-14, and 28: 11, 
24, 26; also 36: 30, and 38: 8-26.) 

This idea runs through the works of all the ancient 
poets. Homer's and Virgil's writings reveal it on al- 
most every page. The great deep of the Hebrews 
was the same as the Okeanos (Oceanus) of the Greeks 
and the celestial JSTile of the Egyptians. When the 
great abyss fell, its name was translated from the skies 



The Noachian Deluge. 105 

to the waters of the earth. In a succeeding volume of 
this series these facts will be fully established. 

Unless we adopt the philosophic view here set forth, 
what meaning can the forty days' rain be made to as- 
sume? Waters were sent from a great deep through 
the windows of heaven. Reason forever refuses to en- 
tertain the idea that a rain from the clouds met waters 
from the terrestial oceans, and both combined overran 
the earth. It is unphilosophic and unnatural. See to 
what endless disorder and confusion, contradiction and 
self-stultification, such an idea impels us. It at once 
tells us that the bow as a token or sign of security 
means nothing, and running from sequence to cause it 
could be readily proven that the first and eighth chap- 
ters of Genesis are a tissue of contradictions and false- 
hoods. But with the fountains of the great deep 
placed on high, — the veritable " waters above the fir- 
mament,'' — ^we can readily understand why the ^^ win- 
dows of heaven were opened," and why " all the foun- 
tains were broken up." A grander and more signifi- 
cant truth was never penned by the hand of man. All 
those fountains were broken up at that time, — the 
very fact which the rain-bow proclaims forever, around 
the circuit of the earth. Oh, when will the master- 
minds of the world grasp this momentous idea ! What 
a sad spectacle the unbelieving world presents to-day, 
simply because the doctrine of a universal deluge is 
denied ! 'Now, I do not expect to claim that the great 
deluge in its might and fearful magnitude and grand- 
eur, swept the entire earth, but that its appalling effects 
were felt in some form in every part of the globe can- 
not be denied. In another chapter I will give solid 
reasons for claiming that the oceans stand to-day vastly 



106 The Earth's Annular System, 

deeper than they did in the Adamite age, and I will let 
the most skeptical man answer the following question. 
If the fountains of the great deep should, during a 
down-rush of water for six months, raise the ocean so as 
to cause its level to climb upon the continents, is it 
likely that many individuals of any race of terrestrial 
beings, could survive the catastrophe? And would 
not such a rain or flood convince the survivors of the 
same that it was universal? All I claim, and ask, is 
that men admit that a universal flood is no unnatural 
thing. No man of reason will for one moment doubt 
that the earth was deluged universally when the oceans 
fell to its surface. The oceans did fall to its surface ! 
And what philosophy can there be advanced against 
the claim that some part of the oceans fell in the days 
of Noah, since Ave all know they did fall some time? 
If men choose to say they all fell in pre-archsean times, 
I choose to say they could not and did not, and that all 
the evidence is on my side. 

What consternation would fill the mind of humanity, 
if from some exhaustless fund of waters, the eartk 
should in this age be again compelled to undergo such 
a baptism ! Such a rush of waters as would drench the 
hills for years, perhaps ages, fill the valleys till they 
leap their boundaries, and pour into the ocean from 
millions of river-mouths, till its level would rise even 
one foot, would literally drown the earth; and a few 
thousand years would obliterate much of the impres- 
sion from the human mind, and all physical appear- 
ances of its track. If at such a time, that fund of 
waters were exhausted by the down-rush, and man in 
ages to come could see no longer any philosophic cause 
of deluges, and forgetting that a source of such floods 



The Noachian Deluge. 107 

did once exist, he would begin to doubt the truth of the 
old histories and traditions relating thereto. 

This is the exact condition to-day of our knowledge 
of the last great deluge. The history of the event is 
chronicled in the oldest records of the earth. Its 
source has vanished, and men doubt that it ever oc- 
curred. But let me again repeat: the evolution of the 
earth demands that such a source be supplied. As 
man directs his mind to this investigation he must and 
will supply it. So that if every trace of the history, 
tradition or physical appearance of such an event be 
utterly lost, man must and will conclude that the earth 
has been deluged many times. The oceans, as they roll 
around the planet, are the aggregate of almost endless 
additions of water during the ages. 

At this point let us look back upon the ground we 
have left. See the order in which this remarkable ac- 
count is given. We are told there was a day when it 
did not rain on the earth. Surely every one of my 
readers can see that this necessarily excludes the sun's 
direct heat from the earth's surface. The sun must 
shine upon the earth, and heat its surface before air- 
currents can arise and enter upon their round. It is a 
commingling of air-currents of different temperatures 
that causes rains to fall. Consequently no currents, 
no rain; and no rains, no sun. But no sun necessitates 
upper vapors, and upper vapors necessitate an annu- 
lar appendage; an annular appendage of vapors neces- 
sitates a deluge; and a deluge from that source means 
the clearing of the skies, and the advent of the bow; 
and the clearing of the skies, necessitates a great 
"wind," and the beginning of the grand air-currents 
of the atmosphere; and this, so long as it continues, 



108 The Earth's Annular System. 

necessitates the regular alternation of seasons. If 
there be anything at all in physical law, we certainly 
cannot avoid this conclusion. How did it ever happen, 
that the author or authors of Genesis related these 
facts in such harmonious accord with all those condi- 
tions which an annular arrangement of waters necessi- 
tates ? How did it ever happen that the " mistakes of 
Moses '' were all made in the line of eternal law ? 
^^ Mistakes ! '' Facts related for what ? To establish 
a theory which the least variation or contradiction 
would vitiate ? We must value that history, and that 
historian, that presents what have puzzled the greatest 
minds of earth four thousand years. 

Again, we are told there was light in the terrestrial 
ieavens before the sun appeared; but light before the 
advent of the visible sun necessitates a fund of inter- 
cepting matter above the terrestrial firmament ; but this 
requires an annular or belted canopy; and this requires 
a day of physical rest, a rainless age, an Eden clime, 
and long life; and (may I not also claim?) a race of 
giants.* (See Genesis 6: 4.) But each and all these 
things demand a suspension to a great extent of the 
Tegular alternation of seasons, seed-time and harvest, 
cold and heat, and day and night, before the deluge. 
And this condition of things before the deluge demands 
a change and a regular alternation of the same, as the 
waters fell and the heavens became clear. Hence the 

* Tlie presence of upper vapors, entering the atmosphere on 
their way to the earth, via the polar regions, necessitates an at- 
mosphere of greater buoyant power. (For much of the weight 
of all the waters of the deluge was added thereto, so long as it 
existed in the atmosphere, which may have been the case for mil- 
lenniums.) And a greater buoyant power necessitates larger bod- 
ily frame. Hence the greater size of antediluvian animals. 
Question : Could there have been " giants in those days " if there 
had been no upper waters? 



The Noachian Deluge. 109' 

declaration made immediately after tlie waters felL 
(See Gen. 8:22.) I need not tell the reader how near- 
ly these natural causes and sequences flow in harmony 
with the demands of the earth's annular system. 

In order to prove more fully the claim that the great 
deep of diluvian times was the upper ocean of ancient 
man, we will draw a little from traditions, that yet^ 
after thousands of years, live in the human mind. As 
we proceed, let the reader notice the evident fact that 
man, in the infancy of the race, and the rudeness of his 
intellect, coupled the deluge with celestial streams^ 
celestial deities and celestial monsters guarding celes- 
tial fountains. It is not necessary for me to call the 
attention of classical students and thinkers to these 
facts. They know the pages of mythological literature 
are replete with these ideas ; and every man must admit 
the only claim I build upon this evidence, that when 
these thoughts were penned, these ideas pervaded the 
human race; that one main thought runs through all 
ancient traditional lore ; that the " great abyss " of the 
Hebrews; the Oceanus of the Greeks and Komans; 
and the Nilus of the Egyptians were the " waters above 
the firmament,'' — the earth's annular appendage. 



CHAPTEK Vn. 

LEGENDS OF THE FLOOD. 

Having conclusively shown that vast and terrific 
deluges have been a philosophic necessity from the re- 
motest geologic ages, and having shown that the pecu- 
liar testimony of Genesis can mean nothing less than a 
recital of the effects of the fall of the last remnant of 
the earth's annular system, I will here append a brief 
chapter of the " Flood Legends," as they have existed 
in the history and memory of the human race for un- 
known ages. I do this, not with the mere aim to 
strengthen the foundation already laid, but also to pre- 
sent some facts of interest, permitting one to draw his 
own conclusion as to the bearing they have upon the 
theory I have advanced. Yet it is impossible not to see 
in many of these legends the intimate relation between 
cataclysms and their efficient and natural cause. First 
let us take a philosophic glance at the value of these 
legends. 

Such widespread desolation must have indelibly im- 
pressed the human mind, and inasmuch as the account 
has come down to us through the custodians of the most 
reliable history, — the guardians of civilization, the 
Aryans, Phoenicians, Greeks and Hebrews, it is no diffi- 
cult task to co-link even the rudest form of flood tradi- 
tions with the one terrible visitation so graphically re- 
lated by the ancient penman. Its shadows will never 
pass from the historic page. Men may impugn and 
ridicule the narrative. Yet the fact remains, that a 
self-sustaining history is there; and the combined 



J 



Legends of the Flood. Ill 

sophistry of all time cannot shake it. The day will 
come when even the most incredulous will admit the 
main truth recorded from the very fact that it is self- 
corroborative. Let the reader again peruse the plain 
unvarnished narrative as recorded in Genesis. We are 
indebted to Berosus, who is supposed to have been a 
Chaldean priest, for the most valuable traditional ac- 
count of the flood. He lived some time in the third 
century B. C, and seems to have had access to the 
Babylonian records. Some of these, including the 
flood legend, he translated into the Greek language. 
This latter I give as translated from the Greek his- 
torian, and is as follows: — 

"After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus 
(Noah) reigned 18 sari. In his time happened a great 
deluge, the history of which is thus described. The 
god Chronos appeared to him in a vision, and warned 
him that upon the fifteenth Dsesius there would be a 
flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He 
therefore enjoined him to write a history of the begin- 
ning, procedure and conclusion of all things, and to 
bury it into the City of the Sun at Sippara ; and to build 
a vessel, and take with him into it, his friends and rela- 
tions, and to convey on board every thing necessary to 
sustain life, together with all the different animals, both 
birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to 
the deep. Having asked the deity whither he was to 
sail, he was answered * To the gods ' ; upon which he 
offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then 
obeyed the divine admonition and built a vessel, five 
stadia in length, and two in breadth.* Into this he 

*One stadium = 625 Roman, 600 Greek, and 609% English 
feet. 



112 Ttie Earth's Annular System. 

put every thing which, he had prepared, and last of all 
conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. 
After the flood had been npon the earth, and was in 
time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, 
which, not finding any food, nor any place whereupon 
they might rest their feet, returned to him again. Af- 
ter an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second 
time, and they now returned with their feet tinged 
with mud. He made a trial a third time with these 
birds, but they returned to him no more. From which 
he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared 
above the waters. He therefore made an opening in 
the vessel, and upon looking out, found that it was 
stranded upon the side of some mountain, upon which 
he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter 
and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the 
earth, and, having constructed an altar, offered sacri- 
fices to the gods, and with those who came out of the 
vessel with him, disappeared. They who remained 
within, finding that their companions did not return, 
quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called 
continually upon the name of Xisuthrus. Him they 
saw no more ; but they could distinguish his voice in the 
air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due re- 
gard to religion; and likewise informed them, that it 
was on account of his piety, that he was translated to 
live with the gods, and that his wife and daughter had 
obtained the same honor. To this he added, that they 
should return to Babylonia, and as it was ordained, 
search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to 
make known to all mankind. Moreover, that the place 
wherein they then were, was the land of Armenia. The 
rest, having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the 



Legends of the Flood. 113 

gods, and taking a circuit, journeyed towards Baby- 
lonia. The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, 
some part of it yet remains in the Gordyan mountains." 
Such is an account of the last grand debacle of ex- 
terior waters, as it comes to us from the historian of 
the Chaldees. It bears upon its face some important 
and undeniable truths. 1st. That its original source and 
that of the Biblical account were one and the same. 
2d. That the former had been long preserved in the 
mind and memory of a different nationality, or people. 
The tradition of the Chaldees shows that its custodians 
were a maritime people, one accustomed to the waters. 
Their ark was a ship, and built for the ocean, and their 
Noah was commanded to launch fearlessly upon the 
" deep.'' The Biblical ark was a thebotem, a chest or 
box, and every term used in the history of the same, 
points to the fact that it was a place of refuge for an 
inland people. The Chaldees had a pilot, a term and 
personage employed only among inhabitants of the 
waters. 3d. It shows that there was a vast lapse of 
time, from the date of the deluge to the time when the 
account was placed upon the Chaldean records. So 
long was it that this people claimed it as their own his- 
tory, just as every race and tongue, having a similar 
tradition, does to-day. It is a perfectly natural result. 
Each tribe and race has perpetuated the knowledge of 
the deluge in its own language; each has its own Noah, 
ark, ship or canoe. It would be exceedingly strange 
and unphilosophic if it did not. There is another ver- 
sion of the Chaldean account a little different : " The 
deity, Chronos, foretold to him (Sisithrus), that on the 
fifteenth day of the month Daesius, there would be a 
deluge of rain, and he commanded him to deposit all 



114 The Earth's Annular System. 

the writings whatever, which were in his possession, in 
the City of the Sun at Sippara. Sisithrus, when he 
had complied with these commands, sailed immediately 
to Armenia, and was presently inspired of God. Upon 
the third day after the cessation of the rain, Sisithrus 
sent out birds by way of experiment, that he might 
judge whether the flood had subsided. But the birds 
passing over an unbounded sea, without finding any 
place of rest, returned again to Sisithrus. This he re- 
peated with other birds, and, when upon the third trial 
he succeeded (for the birds then returned with their 
feet stained with mud), the gods translated him from 
among men. With respect to the vessel, which yet re- 
mains in Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to 
form bracelets and amulets from its wood. 

I wish here to again call the attention of the reader 
to the indisputable fact, that the continual decline of 
revolving vapors, as they progressed toward the poles, 
would cause them to grow thin near the equator, and 
that the sun became visible in the equatorial world long 
before the great catastrophe to which these traditions 
allude. This seems to have been the case of the cherub 
sun more than a thousand years before the days of 
!N'oah. That the sun's coming into view would be the 
only physical means, possessed by the human race, as 
a warning against the impending danger. How signi- 
ficant then the fact that Chronos, the god of time, the 
vapor-veiled sun, is represented here as annoimciag to 
the human race the coming deluge? After this great 
cataclysm of water, when the sun became clear and 
visible to the entire world, what could be more natural 
and reasonable than that the remnant of the human 
race, as they multiplied and filled the earth, knowing 



i 



Legends of the Flood. 115 

that this luminary came into view as the waters fell, 
should look upon it as a deitv — a measurer of time — 
and finally, as a veritable personage who had given 
warning of the coming deluge. IvTow, anyone can see 
to-day that the sun would be to the scientists of this 
age, an actual measurer, and he would not be very much 
of a mathematician, at this age, who could not by notic- 
ing the appearance of the moving belts, the perpetual 
change in the halo, the fitful and frequent ialls of 
vapor, as the years rolled by, calculate the month 
and the day of the final collapse. It seems that man 
knew of this coming dispensation long enough to enable 
him to build an ark. How did he get the informa- 
tion ? The simple fact is, that ISToah was informed of 
God, either as a seer or mathematician. Which ? 

As it may be of some interest to the reader to learn 
something of the records from which this tradition 
came, I will present in this chapter some parts of the 
rude legend of the flood, imprinted on brick tablets, 
perhaps in the early age of the Babylonian monarchy, 
nearly, if not quite, 4,000 years ago, and stored away in 
the libraries of Nineveh, and other cities, now mould- 
ered to dust and marked only by rounded heaps or 
mounds. From these mounds, the persistent efforts of 
Layard and Smith have brought to light vast numbers 
of these tablets, veritable books of those long-lost ages, 
which have been so far deciphered and translated, as 
to show conclusively what they are. These volumes 
are inscribed in cuneiform characters, — characters so 
exceedingly old that it was but a happy accident that 
the key to their meaning was discovered and that 
archaeologists are now able to interpret them. These 



116 The Uarth's Annular System. 

tablets are so mutilated and broken that tbeir full text 
cannot be made out. 

" T listened to the decree of fate that he announced, 
and he said me to ; — ' Man of Shurippak, son of Ubar- 

atutu — ^thou, build a vessel and finish it (quickly). 

(By a deluge) I will destroy substance and life. — Cause 
thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that 

has life. The vessel thou shalt build — 600 cubits 

shall be the measure of its length — and 60 cubits the 

amount of its breadth and of its height. (Launch it) 

thus on the ocean, and cover it with a roof.' ^I under- 
stood, and I said to Ea, my lord: — ^(The vessel) that 
thou command est me to build, thus — (when) I shall 

do it, — young and old (shall laugh at me.)' (Ea 

opened his mouth and) spoke. — He said to me, his ser- 
vant: — ^(If they laugh at thee) thou shalt say to 
them : — (shall be punished) he who has insulted me, 
(for the protection of the gods) is over me — . . . like 
to caverns ... — ... I will exercise my judgment 
on that which is on high, and that which is below . . . 
— ... Close the vessel ... — ... At a given moment 
that I shall cause thee to know, — enter into it, and 
draw the door of the ship toward thee. — Within it, thy 
grains, thy furniture, thy provisions, — thy riches, thy 
men-servants and thy maid-servants, and thy young 
people — the cattle of the field, and the wild beasts of 
the plain that I will assemble — and that I will send 
thee, shall be kept behind thy door.' Khasisatra opened 
his mouth and spoke ; — he said to Ea, his lord : ^ 'No 

one has made (such a) ship. On the prow I will fix 

. . . — I shall see . . . and the vessel . . . — the ves- 
sel thou commandest me to build (thus) — which in . . .' 
On the fifth day (the two sides of the bark) were 



Legends of the Flood. 117 

raised. — In its covering, fourteen in all were its rafters 
— ^fourteen in all did it count above. — I placed its roof, 
and I covered it. — I embarked in it on the sixth day; 
I divided its floors on the seventh; I divided the in- 
terior compartments on the eighth. I stopped up 
the chinks through which the water entered in; — I 
visited the chinks, and added what was wanting. — I 
poured on the exterior three times 3600 measures 
asphalte, — three times 3600 measures of asphalte 
within. — Three times 3600 men, porters brought on 
their heads the chests of provisions. — I kept 3600 
chests for the nourishment of my family, — and the 
mariners divided among themselves twice 3600 chests. 
— For (provisioning) I had oxen slain; — I instituted 
(rations) for each day. — In (anticipation of the need 
of) drinks, of barrels, and of wine — (I collected in 
quantity) like to the waters of a river, (of provisions) 
in quantity like the dust of the earth. — (To arrange 
them in) the chests I set my hand to. — ... of the sun 

. . . the vessel was completed. . . . strong and — 

I had carried above and below the furniture of the ship 
— (This lading filled the two thirds.) All that I pos- 
sessed I gathered together; all I possessed of silver I 
gathered together — all that I possessed of gold I gath- 
ered — all that I possessed of the substance of life of 
every kind I gathered together, — I made all ascend into 
the vessel; my servants, male and female, — the cattle 
of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons 
of the people, I made them all ascend. Shamash (the 
sun) made the moment determined, and — he announced 
it in these terms : — ^ In the evening I will cause it to 
rain abundantly from heaven; enter into the vessel and 
close the door.' — the fixed moment had arrived, which- 



118 The Earth's Annular System. 

he announced in these terms : — ' In the evening I will 
cause it to rain abundantly from heaven.' — When the 
evening of that day arrived, I was afraid — I entered 
into the vessel and shut my door. — ^In shutting the ves- 
sel, to Buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot, — I confided this 
dwelling, with all that it contained. Mu-sheri-ina- 
namari — rose from the foundations of heaven in a black 
cloud; — Kammon thundered in the midst of the cloud, 
— and i^abon, and Sharru marched before; — they 
marched, devastating the mountain and the plain; — 
Nergal, the powerful, dragged chastisements after him; 
— Adar advanced, overthrowing before him ; — the arch- 
angels of the abyss brought destruction. — in their ter- 
rors they agitated the earth. — The inundation of Kam- 
mon swelled up to the sky, — and (the earth) became 
without lustre, was changed into a desert. They broke 
... of the surface of the earth like . . . ; — (they de- 
stroyed) the living beings of the surface of the earth. 
— The terrible (deluge) on men swelled up to (heaven). 
— The brother no longer saw his brother; men no 
longer knew each other. In heaven — the gods became 
afraid of the water-spout, and — sought a refuge; they 
mounted up to the heaven of Anu. — The gods were 
stretched out motionless, pressing one against another 
like dogs. — Ishtar wailed like a child, — the great god- 
dess pronounced her discourse : — ^ Here is humanity 
turned into mud, and — this is the misfortune that I 
have announced in the presence of the gods. — So I an- 
nounced the misfortune in the presence of the gods, — 
for the evil I announced, the terrible (chastisement) of 
men who are mine. — I am the mother who gave birth 
to men, and — like to the race of fishes, there they are 
filling the sea; — and the gods, by reason of that — which 



Legends of the Flood. 119 

the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me/ 
— The gods on their seats were seated in tears, — and 
they held their lips closed, (revolving) future things. 
Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the 
water-spout, and the diluvian rain were in all their 
strength. At the approach of the seventh day the 
diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout — 
which had assailed after the fashion of an earthquake 
— grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up, and the wind 
and the water-spout came to an end. I looked at the 
sea, attentively observing — and the whole of humanity 
had returned to mud; like unto sea-weeds the corpses 
floated. I opened the windows, and the light smote on 
my face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and I 
wept; — and my tears came over my face. I looked at 
the regions bounding the sea; toward the twelve points 
of the horizon; not any continent. — The vessel was 
borne above the land of ^N'izir, — the mountain of N'izir 
arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. 
— A day, and a second day the mountain of JSTizir ar- 
rested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over; — 
the third and fourth day the mountain of IN^izir arrested 
the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over ; — the fifth 
and sixth day the mountain of l^izir arrested the ves- 
sel, and did not permit it to pass over. At the ap- 
proach of the seventh day, I sent out and loosed a 
dove. The dove went out, turned, and — found no 
place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and 
loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and — 
found no place to light on and it came back. I sent 
out and loosed a raven; the raven went and saw the 
corpses on the water; it ate, rested, turned, and came 
not back. I then sent out (what was in the vessel) 



120 The E anil's Annular System. 

toward the four winds, and I offered a sacrifice. I 
raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak of the 
mountain; seven bj seven I disposed the measured 
vases, — and beneath I spread rushes, cedar, and juni- 
per-wood. The gods were seized with the desire of it 
— the gods were seized with a benevolent desire of it; 
— and the gods assembled like flies above the master 
of the sacrifice. From afar, in approaching, the great 
goddess raised the great zones that Anu has made for 
their glory (the gods). These gods, luminous crystal 
before me, I will never leave them ; in that day I prayed 
that I might never leave them. 

" Let the gods come to my sacrificial pile ! — ^but never 
may Bel (sun) come to my sacrificial pile ! for he did 
not master himself, and he has made the water-spout 
for the Deluge, and he has numbered my men for the 
pit. From afar, in drawing near, Bel — ^saw the vessel, 
and Bel stopped; — he was filled with anger against the 
gods and the celestial archangels : — ^ ISTo one shall 
come out alive ! j^o man shall be preserved from the 
abyss ! ' — Adar opened his mouth and said; he said to 
the warrior Bel : — ^ What other than Ea should have 
formed this resolution? — for Ea possesses knowledge, 
and (he foresees) all.' — Ea opened his mouth and 
spoke; he said to the warrior Bel: — ' O thou, herald of 
the gods, warrior, — as thou didst not master thyself, 
thou hast made the water-spout of the ^Deluge. — Let 
the sinner carry the weight of his sins, the blasphemer 
the weight of his blasphemy. — Please thyself with this 
good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in 
it never (shall be violated). Instead of thy making a 
new deluge, let lions appear and reduce the number of 
men; — instead of thy making a new deluge, let hyenas 



Legends of the Flood. 121 

appear and reduce the number of men; — instead of 
thy making a new deluge let there be famine, and let 
the earth be (devastated); — instead of thy making a 
new deluge, let Dibbara appear, and let men be 
(mown down). I have not revealed the decision of the 
great gods; — it is Khasisatra who interpreted a dream 
and comprehended what the gods had decided/ 
Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into 
the vessel. — He took my hand and made me rise. — He 
made my wife rise, and made her place herself at my 
side. — He turned around us and stopped short; he ap- 
proached our group. — ' Until now Khasisatra has been 
made part of perishable humanity; — but lo, now Khas- 
isatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live 
with the gods, — and Khasisatra will reside afar at the 
mouth of the rivers.' — They carried me away and es- 
tablished me in a remote place at the mouth of the 
streams," etc., etc. 

Here we have in rude form the legend of the Sood 
lettered on brick and stone thousands of years ago. In 
the libraries of Mneveh, a city within whose walls 
were " six score thousand persons who knew not the 
right hand from the left,'' they were stored away and 
when her temples went to dust there they remained. 
Amid the shock of war her walls went down, and the 
shout of armies echoed through her streets. V/hen 
citadels and temples and courts had gone to dust, her 
silent libraries were waiting but to speak in other 
tongues, in a world of light. That light came and her 
dust awoke and she speaks again. She says in language 
too plain to be mistaken, that when these rocky vol- 
umes were inscribed, the tradition then was old! So 



122 The Earth's Annular System. 

old the carver or printer scarcely knew the doubtful 
from the true. 

Some of my readers perhaps are aware that some 
that aim to cast discredit upon the Biblical account of 
the deluge, make the claim that the writer of Genesis 
borrowed the account from the Xineveh columns. 
How strange that any man of reason should make the 
claim. Place the two side by side, and tell me which 
is more natural, which is more in accord with facts, 
with law? Which more distinctly portrays a down- 
rush of exterior floods; which possesses the more har- 
monious links of truth in the light of modern discov- 
eries; which of the two reveals more plainly the neces- 
sity of waters beyond the firmament? A Sabbath 
of physical rest, a rainless age, an Eden world, a wind- 
less, nightless, winterless age ? Which of them reveals 
the positive fact that there can never be another 
deluge; and which of them seals the eternal covenant 
with the stamp of God impressed upon the clouds? 
How many of these were borrowed from Xineveh's 
sapient piles ? While these ancient tablets are engag- 
ing our attention, let me call the reader's thoughts to 
the patent fact that their authors, like the rest of the 
older world, looked upon the heavens as the home of 
fountains and rivers. The imaginary lands of the gods 
beyond the clouds were a world of waters traversed by 
celestial ships inhabited by all imaginary monsters. 

Here the sage who escaped the flood and was trans- 
lated to the skies relates to Izdubar the story of the 
flood. Izdubar seeks an entrance into the celestial 
world and pleads in behalf of his dead companion who is 
resting uncomfortably in Hades, and asks that he be res- 
cued. His dead companion also joins in the appeal ia 



Legends of the Flood. 123 

the following language : . . . " Keturn me from Hades, 
the land of mj knowledge, from the house of the de- 
parted, the seat of the god Irkalla from the house with- 
in which there is no exit. From the road the course of 
which never returns. From the place within which thej 
long for light. The place where dust is their nourish- 
ment and their food mud. Its chiefs also like birds are 
clothed with wings. Light is never seen; in darkness 
thej dwell.'' Such was their picture of Hades, the 
under-world, and their description of the place proves 
their belief in such a place and a future life. But now 
comes the picture of the land of the blessed after death. 
..." Keturn me to the place of seers which I will 
enter . . . treasured up a crown; . . . wearing crowns 
who from days of old ruled the earth. To whom 
the gods, Anu and Bel, have given renowned names. 
A place where water is abundant drawn from peren- 
nial springs." Also let us note in this connection one 
more very significant fact, that the ancient Baby- 
lonians considered the sun to be the author of the 
deluge. On one column are inscribed the sentiments 
of INToah, "May the gods come to my altar; may Bel 
(the sun-god) come not to my altar, for he did not mas- 
ter himself and made a deluge, and my people he had 
consigned to the deep. From of old also Bel in his 
course saw the ship, etc.'' Again when the patriarch 
of the ship was about to leave his vessel, he says, "Adra- 
hasis (Noah,) a dream they sent and the judgment 
of the gods he heard. When his judgment was accom- 
plished Bel went up to the midst of the ship; he took 
my hand and raised me up; he caused to raise and 
bring my wife to my side . . . When Hasisadra and 
his wife, and the people to be like gods were carried 



124 The Earth's Annular System, 

away, tlien dwelt Hasisadra in a remote place at the 
mouth of the rivers." Thus it seems the idea of celes- 
tial rivers and streams " fed by perennial fountains " 
was a common one 4,000 years ago. And that Bel 
(Belus), the Sun, was Nineveh's god, and her author 
of the flood. How natural these things appear! The 
sun coming into view as the waters fell, was esteemed a 
deity, and the direct cause of man's destruction. 
Hence for unknown generations, he was feared and 
adored by the survivors of the flood. This will be more 
fully understood in connection with other traditions. 
I shall treat elsewhere of the ancient belief of man- 
kind that the heavens were supported by giants, whose 
heads received the lofty vault of the firmament, and 
whose feet were planted in the depths of the earth; 
that the origin of this belief was the actual existence 
in the eastern and western skies, of the appearance of 
vast columns rising from the horizon, and spreading 
out against the face of the sky, their huge Briarean 
arms, the actual vapor-bands that afterwards fell. E'ow 
hear what George Smith, the indomitable searcher 
and discoverer of these old tablets, says after years of 
study in this direction. ^' They (ancient Babylonians) 
held the idea that at a little distance from them there 
were giants who controlled the rising and setting sun, 
and that the orb of day was looked after, and sent on 
its course by these beings, who had their feet in the 
lower region of hell while their heads touched and 
probably upheld the heavens." Veritable pillars of 
Hercules, — pillars of the sun. How immortal are some 
crude ideas. This idea which must have obtained be- 
fore the deluge, lived in the mind of men for unknown 
ages after these phenomena disappeared. 



Legends of the Flood. 125 

When America was discovered there existed among 
the Mexicans a tradition of a deluge, which represented 
that a couple of people were saved therefrom in a ship 
or raft, from which birds were sent to ascertain whether 
the waters had subsided. Some of these it is stated 
saw the floating carcasses on the water and fed thereon. 
Humboldt tells us that " of the different nations who 
inhabit Mexico, paintings representing the deluge are 
found among the Aztecs, the Mizletecs, the Zapotecs, 
Tlascaltecs and the Mechoachans. The INToah, Xisu- 
thrus or Menu of these nations is Coxcix Teocipactli 
or Tezpi. He saved himself and his wife in a bark, or, 
according to other traditions, on a raft. But accord- 
ing to the Mechoachans he embarked in a spacious 
' acalli,' with his wife, his children, several animals 
and some grain, the preservation of which was import- 
ant to mankind, when the great spirit ordered the 
waters to withdraw. Tezpi sent out from his ship a 
vulture,the Zapilote. This bird that feeds on dead flesh 
did not return. . . . Tezpi sent out other birds, one of 
which, the humming bird, alone returned, holding in 
its beak a branch covered with leaves. Tezpi, seeing 
that fresh verdure began to clothe the soil, quitted his 
bark near the mountain of Colhauacan'' (Humb. Kes. 
p. 65.) 

Another tradition of the ancient Mexicans states 
that 4,800 years after the creation, a great inundation 
took place; that before this the country of Anahuac 
was inhabited by giants; that after the deluge the sur- 
vivors built a hill in the shape of a pyramid, the top 
of which was to reach the clouds. This displeased 
the gods, who hurled fire on the builders, some of whom 
were killed, and the monument was afterwards dedi- 



126 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

cated to Quelzolcoatl (Jupiter). Thus we see in the 
legends of Mexico, parts of the Chaldean tradition, such 
as the floating carcasses and the devouring birds — tra- 
ditions which were buried for 4,000 years in Babylon- 
ian libraries. During all this time, then, the memory 
of this great dispensation lived in the mind of man. 
How indelible the stamp it has placed upon the death- 
less pages of tradition. 

Ellis, in his "Polynesian Researches," says: "The 
Sandwichers believe that the Creator destroyed the 
earth by an inundation that covered the whole earth 
except Mouna Roa in Hawaii, on the top of which one 
single pair had the good fortune to save themselves." 
Thus in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, cut off from 
every source of information from the scenes of Arme- 
nian history, the same tradition lives. Another thing 
plainly to be seen in these deluges is the cataclysmic 
character of the devouring waters. " The archangel 
of the (celestial) abyss brought destruction." " The 
waters rose to the sky." The inhabitants of the earth 
" fill the sea like fishes." Their " corpses floated like 
sea-weeds." It was a war of elements most terrific. 
" "Water-spouts pouring from the abyss." Ea opened 
his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior Bel (the 
sun), " Oh, thou, herald of the gods, warrior — as thou 
didst not master thyself (didst not consider), thou hast 
made the water-spout of the Deluge." Again — " Six 
days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water- 
spout, and the diluvian rain, were in all their strength." 
" In heaven the gods became afraid of the water-spout.^' 
Thus all through legendic lore, we can trace the belief 
of man that the deluge was a mighty down-rush of 
waters from the celestial abyss, and that Bel, the sun- 



Legends of the Flood. 127 

god, was the author of it all. Deucalion's flood, which 
is evidently the Chaldean modified to suit the Greeks, 
sets forth many of the same occurrences and features 
just named, and I need not add them here. 

Among the Hindoo legends I find the following: 
One morning water for washing was brought to Manu, 
and when he had washed himself, a fish remained in 
his hands, and addressed him thus, ..." a deluge will 
sweep all creatures away . . . the very year I shall 
have reached my full growth the deluge will hap- 
pen. Then build a vessel and worship me. When the 
waters rise, enter the vessel and I will save thee." 
There is also another form translated from Hindoo, 
which is evidently taken from the Chaldean or Biblical. 
" In seven days the three worlds shall be submerged." 
Among the Iranians, the sacred books relate how the 
original ancestor, under the name of Yima,is ordered 
to construct an enclosure and cause men and animals 
to enter it in order to escape destruction from a deluge. 
]^ow all these legends, pointing to the general destruc- 
tion of man and beast, and the construction of some 
ship, chest or enclosure to preserve them, leads direct- 
ly to the annular system as the source of the destroy- 
ing waves. Both the legend of Ogyge's flood and that 
of Deucalion, refer to the offices of the ark in the pre- 
servation of a few persons, from a general destruction. 
The Koran says, "All men were drowned save Noah 
and his family; and then God said, ^ Oh Earth, swal- 
low up thy waters, and thou Oh Heaven, withhold thy 
rain,' and immediately the waters abated." The 
Egyptians seem to have had a correct knowledge of the 
deluge, for they told Solon that there had been many; 



128 The Earth^s Annular System. 

and also told him of " one great deluge of all." — ^Plato's 
'' Dialogues." 

My readers no doubt are familiar with the fable of 
Phaeton, son of Helios, who harnessed the steeds of the 
sun to his father's chariot, but because he was not able 
to keep them in the path of his father, produced a gen- 
eral conflagration and destruction. This evidently 
is a myth which arose from the fact that, as the 
upper vapors declined, the sun came more vividly into 
Tiew, and as the waters of the deluge fell, it became 
visible in all its might and majesty, and all terrestrial 
nature, including man and beast, all vegetation unac- 
customed to the blaze of the sun, must have suffered 
from its direct action. So the sun-power would be re- 
membered with the same vividness as the deluge, by 
those in lands not so greatly affected by the fall of 
waters. And in the land of Egypt, above all others, I 
presume this phenomenon would be more thoroughly 
remembered. ISTow it is not a little remarkable that 
the Egyptian priests should tell Solon that the fable 
'^ Really means a decline of the bodies moving around 
the earth, and in the heavens." The declaration 
could not be plainer if it said, it " Really means the 
fall of revolving vapors from the heavens." (See 
Plato's "Dialogues.") This volume might be filled 
with such traditions, from almost every nation, kindred 
and tongue on the earth. Hindoos, Brahmins, Chinese, 
Sandwichers, Eijis, Peruvians, Mexicans and Alaskans 
have all preserved deathless memorials of this great 
event. 

The classical student is now prepared perhaps to see 
that the rock of the annular theory underlies the en- 
tire system of Eastern and Western mythologies; — 



Legends of the Flood. 129 

that the light radiating from the former, illumines and 
simplifies the latter to a marvelous extent. Let us ad- 
mit the interdiluvian world to have been in its earlier 
periods the scene of perpetual day, lighted up by a yet 
invisible sun, and a hundred mysteries are readily 
solved. First we may readily understand why the 
sacred historian informed his readers that day and 
night should forever alternate after the deluge when 
the sun came distinctly into view. (See Gen. 8: 22.) 
Then we may readily see the sun-power represented by 
Osiris, Hercules, and the Apollos to have been looked 
upon as the forming, conquering, and renovating 
deities of the ancient world. The absence of the sun's 
direct light and actinic energy having formed the 
Edenic clime that charcterized the world in which the 
infant human race was nursed, it must be plain that as 
the vapors grew thinner in the equatorial regions, as 
they spread toward the poles of the earth, the sun came 
gradually into view, and its coming was the physical 
agent in the Creator's hands in putting an end to the 
Eden climate. The sun's absence made Eden, and 
therefore his presence destroyed it and drove man from 
his genial home. We are impelled to this conclusion 
by inexorable law. The solar orb then coming into 
view more fully as the vapors thinned away, and the 
climate of the Eden world growing colder necessarily 
at the same time — a physical curse thus coming upon 
the earth — mankind must have looked upon the sun 
as the agent in the hands of the supreme Arbiter, to 
punish them for their sins. In short, that coming con- 
queror was looked upon as the cause of the deluge. 
With this, as the agent of the Omnipotent Hand, in 
the estimation of man for punishing the wicked, not 



130 The Earth's Annular System. 

only is the darkness of mythology largely expelled, but 
the whole Edenic history is wonderfully illuminated. 

Then when I read the remarkable passages of Job 
38 : 12, 18, " Hast thou commanded the morning, since 
thy days; and caused the day-spring (sun) to know his 
place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, 
that the wicked might be shaken out of it ? " it shows 
plainly to my mind that the famous patriarch lived 
in an age when men believed the sun came in to pim- 
ish the wicked! This, and several other passages, I 
cannot now enlarge upon, leave not a doubt upon my 
mind, that much of the book of Job, was penned in 
interdiluvian * times. We are now merely approach- 
ing some of the momentous conclusions to which the 
annular theory must inevitably lead. Conclusions that 
must make sweeping and radical changes in opinions, 
as the theory gains a place in the philosophic credence 
of men. 



* I use the term interdiluvian to represent that period extend- 
ing from the expulsion of man from Eden, to the final fall of the 
waters upon the earth. As it is evident man was deprived of 
his Eden clime by declining vapors, first in the polar regions, 
this period must have been one of great climatical changes; in 
fact, must have been an interdiluvian one. 



CHAPTER Vni. 



.OCEANIC DOWNFALLS AND AUGMENTATION OF TERRESTRIAL 

WATERS. 

A CONSIDERATION OF THE EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF 

THE CLAIM THAT THE WATERS OF THE OCEAN 

HAVE BEEN GREATLY INCREASED IN 

VOLUME IN VERY RECENT 

GEOLOGIC TIME. 

The reader must now see there is no possible escape 
from the conclusion that if the ^NToachian waters fell 
to the earth, as our theory predicates, there is now a 
greater volume of ocean on the earth than before the 
deluge. That the shores of the ocean are further in- 
land; that the estuaries and bays, straits and seas com- 
municating with the ocean are wider and deeper; and 
further, that this must be the condition of the world 
at large, except where recent elevation has taken place. 
If, then, it can be shown that this condition of the 
oceanic world does obtain, it will be taken as another 
link of valuable evidence. Again, when this evidence 
is confronted by that now universally held, that all the 
submerged regions of the earth merely sank and let 
in the waters of the ocean upon them; if the unphilo- 
sophic nature of the claim can be shown, the evidence 
becomes positive and conclusive; for the submerged 
tracts of the earth either sank or the oceans have been 
augmented. 

It is true that many portions have sunk; that some 
parts of the earth are sinking to-day, and others stead- 



132 The Earth's Annular System. 

ily rising. This phenomenon must needs be, while 
rivers bear their measureless burden to the sea; while 
currents transport solid matter from one part of the 
earth to another, and the conservation of energy re- 
mains a fixed law in the universe. It is calculated 
that the solid matter annually carried down by the 
great Mississippi is sufiicient to cover 640 acres to the 
depth of 240 feet. This floated matter is deposited in 
the Mexican Gulf, or carried by currents into the 
adjacent oceans; and we must not forget that every 
pound of matter thus transferred is an energy trans- 
ferred! In the course of one thousand years, one 
thousand square miles of oceanic bottom would be cov- 
ered 240 feet, by an actual accumulation, and the un- 
derlying beds would support a pressure measured by 
millions of tons. This enormous pressure upon the 
underlying rocks is so much transferred energy con- 
verted into mechanical heat. This mechanical heat 
must, of course, expand the rocks thus under increased 
pressure; and as there is apparently no measure of this 
expansive force, what rock can there be that will not 
yield to 'the force exerted ? At the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi the continued additions of mechanical pressure 
by the constant deposits, borne down by the river, give 
rise to bubbling and steaming hillocks of mud, — veri- 
table miniature volcanoes. As increase of pressure 
must give rise to increase of heat, unit for unit, it is 
plain that excessive increase of pressure must produce 
corresponding increase of heat. Is it not a legitimate 
conclusion, then, that if all the sediment and precipi- 
tated matter carried into the Gulf of Mexico were de- 
posited on its bottom, and not borne to a great extent 
into the Atlantic, its coast would be like that of the 



Oceanic Downfalls. 133 

Mediterranean Sea, lined with numerous mountains and 
the scene of active volcanoes ? 

The great Mediterranean is certainly a grand exam- 
ple of the conservation and transfer of energy. Many 
large rivers pour into it from all sides, bearing such 
enormous volumes of sediment that is not carried to the 
ocean, but is constantly settling upon its bottom; and 
the frequent and appalling eruptions so well known in 
modern times, cannot but be pure results thereof ? Can 
scientists find any other vents than volcanoes and earth- 
quakal agitations for this force employed? It must 
be accounted for. It cannot be lost. And the ques- 
tion might well be asked: Can volcanic eruptions have 
any other cause than that of transmitted or transferred 
energy? As we look around the globe and see all its 
volcanoes located in regions where transported sedi- 
ment is accumulating — i.e., in and around the ocean 
borders, and see that no volcanoes are located where 
no sediment can accumulate, can we for one moment 
doubt that we have here the true cause of volcanic 
eruptions. As the underlying rocks expand by the in- 
crease of heat, arising from additional sediments con- 
tiually gathering upon them in the seas, they must 
fracture and crush into neighboring rocks; which 
crushing must give rise to centers of fire susceptible of 
fusing the beds around them. And it is conceivable 
that sufiicient sediment may gather over a bed of rock 
to liquefy the latter. About 65,000 feet of steel blocks 
piled one upon another will give rise to sufficient heat 
to melt the lowest blocks, or at least to render them 
plastic. Hence the reasonable conclusion that the 
lava that issues from a volcano is the deep bed-rock 
fused by pressure, produced by lateral expansion. Thus 



134 The Earth's Annular System. 

we may behold even here the grand effort of solar 
action. Solar heat raises the vapor on high; it falls 
as rain, on hill and plain, swells into a stream, or feeds 
a fountain, and gathers sediment as it runs through its 
channel to the sea, where it adds its increment of me- 
chanical heat to fuse the rock. So that the force em- 
ployed in the grandest volcanic eruption is the same 
in amount as that employed by the sun-beam in raising 
that vapor from the sea to the clouds. 

This little digression will prepare the reader to un- 
derstand that as sediment is continually accumulating 
in some regions, and being removed from others, there 
must be rock expansion going on continually in some 
regions, and continual contraction in others. Expan- 
sion must elevate the earth's crust. Contraction must 
lower it. The reader must see that this is law, and 
must also see herein an adequate cause for the sinking 
of some coast regions, and the elevation of others. It 
is an extremely slow motion, which, arguing an ex- 
tremely slow accumulation or diminution of mechani- 
cal energy would seem to point alone to the cause here 
supposed. 

But while in the neighborhood of the ocean's boun- 
daries such oscillations may occur, we surely could not 
expect such to obtain to any extent among islands in 
mid-ocean, or on coasts where for many thousand miles 
no rivers of importance exist. The elevation and 
submergence of such coasts must be attributed to other 
causes. Xow the continents have all been lifted from 
the oceans, and can it be possible that they could be 
raised to their present position by any other than ?. 
solid bed of intruded or expanded matter. They were 
lifted by a force directed from the oceans, as all will 



Oceanic Downfalls. 135 

admit. Did the slow accunmlations of sediment ac- 
complish this grand result ? If so, why was that energy 
put to work at successive periods, and attended with 
sudden and abrupt changes, and extermination of 
specific forms ? The same force at work to raise the 
coast of !N'orway could not lift a continent and put eter- 
nal props under its adamantine sills. Wherein, then, 
can we find a competent cause ? Can the annular theory 
supply it? 

Let us suppose a downfall of water at this age should 
raise the surface of the ocean 50 feet above its present 
level. The reader will see that every ton of water thus 
added to the pressure on the ocean's bed must be con- 
verted into so many units of mechanical heat in the 
granite foundation of the aqueous beds, causing an ex- 
pansion which nothing could resist, and directing this 
measureless force towards the continents. The only re- 
sult that could take place is evidently the forcing of 
matter, solid or plastic, from pressure under them, end- 
ing in their elevation; or the plication of their margins 
into mountain-folds. Now such things have taken 
place again and again in the past ages of this planet. 
Grand convulsions, coupled with universal oceanic bap- 
tisms, and change in life-organisms, have repeatedly 
taken place; and the up-lift always directed from the 
ocean. As an installment of annular matter is neces- 
sary for the baptism; necessary for the transfer of a 
competent energy; necessary for general extermina- 
tion of species, how can we avoid the conclusions that 
the oceans have many times by immeasurable addi- 
tions climbed upon the shores of the world? 

It is clear, then, that the waters of the deluge re- 
ferred to in a former chapter, if anything nearly so tre 



136 The Earth's Annular System. 

mendous as claimed, must have resulted in crust-fold- 
ing, or elevation, especially in the neighborhoods where 
great river systems carried their detritus into the seas. 
It surely is not necessary for me to enumerate and spe- 
cialize the localities of the earth, well known to the 
geologist, that have in the most recent geologic times 
been lifted from the ocean's wave, with the shells of ex- 
isting species. The !N'ew England coast was elevated, 
as all know, many feet since the last advance of glaciers 
there. This being the case, we must look around us 
for the rivers that bear their burdens of continental 
detritus to the seas. Well, the great St. Lawrence 
washes the feet of New England on the north, in a val- 
ley so new that thousands of rock-bound islands gem 
its waters. So new, I say, that it has not yet swept its 
channel clean, and must therefore have been recently 
elevated, with its surroundings, from the sea. It is one 
of the mightiest excavations of the earth. One can 
not look upon its wide reach of flood-ground, and lofty 
facades, and not ask, what has became of all the mat- 
ter borne from this valley ? One comprehensive glance 
at the great banks of iN'ewfoundland will answer the 
question. And now when we see the thousands of 
square miles of detrital offspring of the Hudson's 
waters, how can we conclude otherwise than that those 
great beds were the products of diluvial times ? In 
short, does not everything seem to argue the transmis- 
sion of a competent energy by an adequate cause, by 
means of which !N"ew England's recent elevation was 
effected ? As this phase of mountain-making will be 
fully treated elsewhere we will now turn our attention 
to the more direct question of oceanic augmentation in 
modem times. 



i 



Oceanic Downfalls. 137 

Suppose the reader could see at one view all the river 
estuaries of the earth ! Knowing their delta approaches 
to have been built up by enormous accumulations of 
detritus, forming in many instances, as in the cases of 
the Mississippi, the l^ile and the Ganges, beds several 
hundreds of feet thick; and knowing, too, that the same 
sedimentary deposits are being made at the outlets of 
rivers, emptying into inland lakes, we can readily un- 
derstand that there must be a difference in the appear- 
ance and character of lacustrine deltas and estuaries, 
when compared with those of the oceanic borders. Let 
us examine the great Lakes of ITorth America, empty- 
ing through the St. Lawrence into the ocean. It is 
readily seen that the waters in these lakes cannot 
rise permanently while their present channels of out- 
let remain; that however abundant the additions to 
their waters, so long as river erosion continues, these 
lakes must grow more shallow with the flow of cen- 
turies; that in a few thousand years cities now 
planted upon their shores must become inland towns, 
unless they follow the receding waters. This reces- 
sion of lake waters, and falling of the lake level in the 
region referred to, have been going on for unknown 
time. But it must be seen that as the waters fall, the 
pitch or decline of the river current, as it enters the 
lake, must also increase and follow them; so that in 
course of time the rivers, course through a lacustrine 
delta, would be between walls continually increasing in 
height. How emphatically true this is of the lakes of 
all the earth, I need not say. It is simply a matter of 
observation, which every one can verify. And the 
question here maintained is then apparent: — the reces- 



138 The EarWs Annular System. 

sion of waters from an estuary deepens the channel and 
increases the pitch and flow of a river current. 

The high sand banks contiguous to the lake estuaries 
of this country, which many of my readers must have 
noticed, simply prove that the lake level has fallen. 
Then, again, we must see that if the level of the lake 
waters should be elevated, the results would be just the 
reverse. The pitch of estuary currents would decrease; 
the mural escarpments of river courses would decrease 
in height and the delta formation become one level 
expanse of detrital accumulations. We may now apply 
a decisive test to the river deltas on the oceanic bor- 
ders of the world. In the search of twenty years I 
have been unable to find an oceanic delta, with its ac- 
companying estuary, that possesses the lacustrine char- 
acteristic of increasing pitch. Where the land has 
been elevated so as to show walls and deep delta chan- 
nels at the mouths of rivers there are features which 
the keen eye of the geologist may readily see, as strik- 
ingly different from those in lake regions. The eleva- 
tion of a river mouth throws a volume of water back 
upon itseK, and the deposit is no longer the same as 
before. All the great rivers of the earth present, how- 
ever, the very same appearance, we would find, as 
stated above, in a lake delta and estuary, whose water 
level was elevated by an increase of the volume of 
water. It is the rarest circumstance to find a river of 
much importance flowing with a rapid rush of waters 
into the sea. There is a wide expanse of land scarcely 
above the sea level, washed daily by the tides, and the 
river flows lazily along continually dropping its load of 
sediment. No river bluffs. Almost every sign of 
channel or river escarpments have been obliterated, if 



Oceanic Downfalls. 139 

such ever existed. Why is this so universally the case ? 
It simply proves that land elevation at the mouths of 
rivers is exceedingly rare. It proves that while the 
accumulations of sediment, or delta deposits, are con- 
tinually pushing the wave oceanwards, by the growth 
of land area, the level of the oceanic waters has been 
elevated in modern geologic times, so as to obliterate 
channels and walls that must inevitably grow in the 
lapse of ages, at river mouths. For, with a call cease- 
less as the flow of time, and with an appetite as in- 
satiate as death, the hungry earth is devouring its 
waters. 

The problem, then, is reduced to this: Either the 
oceanic waters have been augmented in volume, by ad- 
ditions thereto, in modern geologic times; or, the land 
at the outlets of almost all the rivers of the globe has 
been sunk. Which of these is the more probable ? 'Na.j, 
can it be possible, that so nearly all the oceanic deltas 
of the earth could present the actual appearance of an 
increase of oceanic waters, unless such an increase had 
taken place ? If these deltas, even to a limited extent, 
exhibited the inclination due to local elevation, we 
might calculate between the probabilities of land de- 
pression and emergence; but when it is all depression, 
there can be no probabilities, and certainties only come 
within the purview of our calculations. 

Again, look at the great Pacific, studded with island 
gems, that are, as is well known, the summits of moun- 
tains submerged. Here are millions of square miles 
of submerged lands, as proven by coraline formations,* 

* "A Melbourne journal describes a remarkable piece of coral 
taken from the submarine cable near Port Darwin. It is of the 
ordinary species, about five inches in height, six inches in diam- 
eter at the top, and about two inches at the base. It is perfectly. 



140 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

that have in modern geologic times succumbed to 
oceanic inroads (i.e., oceanic elevation), and which 
would to-day be a grand continent peopled by indus- 
trious millions, and covered by luxuriant tropical 
vegetation, if its waters could be lowered to the extent 
of 80 or 100 fathoms. Then when we turn to the east- 
ern coast of ^orth America, we find a vast region of 
coast-line just submerged, and glean from the " Coast 
Survey " the remarkable fact that from JSTova Scotia 
to Florida, and from Florida around the whole boun- 
dary of the Mexican Gulf, there are the submerged 
shore-lines of a former continent, far out from the pres- 
ent shore. That for nearly the entire extent of many 
thousands of miles of coast, these shallow waters of 
about 30 or 40 fathoms deep, roll shoreward from the 
mighty depth of the ocean. Beyond this actually known 
and surveyed ancient shore-line, now from 80 to 100 
fathoms under water, the lead and line plunges sudden- 
ly to a depth of 200, 400, 1,000 or 15,000 fathoms. 
From the British coast-survey we learn that the British 
Islands are surrounded by the same character of coasts, 
a mere playground for waves. Gradually the waters 
deepen from the present shore ocean-ward, until we sud- 
denly arrive at the old coast line beyond which lies the 
abyssal deep.* The German ocean and the ISTorwegian 
waters are so shallow that if they were lowered 30 or 

formed, and the base bears the distinct impress of the cable, and 
a few fibers of the coil rope used as a sheath for the telegraphic 
wires still adhering to it. As the cable has been laid only four 
years it is evident that this specimen must have grown to its 
present height in that time, which seems to prove that the 
growth of coral is much more rapid than has been supposed." 

* For the first 100 miles out from New Jersey the ocean deep- 
ens only three feet a mile, or 300 feet in all, while 18 miles 
farther out the water is 6,000 feet deep, and 250 miles out is 2j/^ 
miles deep. 



Oceanic Downfalls. 141 

40 fathoms they would expose a vast stretch of level 
continent on the northwest of Europe. The whole 
coast of northern Europe and Asia presents the same 
characteristics. When we turn to the waters washing the 
eastern shores of Asia we find the same; and wherever 
the southern shore has been surveyed from 60 to 100 
miles from land, throughout the whole coast from Java 
to the Gulf of Aden, we find the same shallow oceanic 
water; and beyond its boundary, the deep ocean. Turn- 
ing again to JSTorth America, from Columbia Kiver to 
Behring's Strait we find shallow ocean. From the 
Columbia River southward to Cape Horn, I have but 
little information respecting the character of the sea 
bottom; but from many places come authentic informa- 
tion that the Pacific waters now roll over submerged 
forests near the shores. The same kind of reports are 
heard from the Atlantic coasts of South America and 
Africa. 

But most fortunately we have information that none 
will dispute from the very midst of the Atlantic Ocean, 
many portions of which have been surveyed and 
mapped. The U. S. sloop Gettysburg several years 
ago, when about 300 miles west of Gibraltar, anchored 
where the sounding line revealed a depth of only 32 
fathoms.. The British ship Challenger and the U. S. 
ship Dolphin have traced the course of a submerged 
continent in mid-ocean, and seem to have demonstrated 
the former existence of a long insular continent, nearlj[ 
mid-way between the two existing continents, and run- 
ning nearly parallel with the general trend of the At- 
lantic Ocean. The character of the deeply cut and 
channeled bed of these mid -ocean ridges shows that they 
were in recent geologic times subject to aerial denuda- 
tion. 



142 The Earth's Annular System. 

Thus it seems there is an abundant evidence, so far 
as we are able to glean from the physical testimony of 
the universal oceans, that its waters, the world over, 
stand higher to-day upon the shores of the continents 
than they formerly did, — than they did in recent geo- 
logical times ! How can we conclude otherwise ? Can 
it be possible that during the same age the great 
Pacific continent covering millions of square miles was 
submerged; the whole Atlantic bed; the Indian Ocean, 
and the E'orth Polar seas, 'should all climb from 30 to 
40 fathoms upon the shores, because of a subsidence 
of the land alone? When Behring's Strait was made 
to connect the polar waters vdth the Pacific; when the 
Strait of Dover separated England from the continent 
of Europe; when the Strait of Gibraltar connected the 
Atlantic with the Mediterranean, the oceans either in- 
creased in volume or the continents sank. And when 
we know that every drop of the immense oceans that 
now wash the shores of the world, has actually fallen 
to the earth's surface since its igneous era closed, and 
since the very pointing of eternal law, from whatever 
field we may view them, shows that these oceans must 
have fallen in terrific and overwhelmijig cataclysms 
through the measureless lapse of ages, and not all in 
primitive times, why should we be slow to admit the 
grand and philosophic thought, that recent geologic 
times closed with a vast augmentation of the waters of 
the earth? Most impressively is this consideration 
forced upon us, as we turn to the records of the gla- 
ciated continents, and reflect upon the immensity of 
the snow-fields that filled the valleys of almost every 
land, till the face of the planet gleamed in universal 
ice. And when we take one step further in the inves- 



Oceanic Downfalls. 143 

tigation, and find that the closing of the glacial period 
Avas the commencement of modern oceanic inroads; 
that the oceans climbed up the shores as the glaciers 
melted away; and further find that terrific deluges of 
water were urged for unknown time down the innumer- 
able valleys of the earth, there seems to be no foothold 
for skepticism on this point. 

I will now collate some interesting facts relative to 
this phase of the annular theory, some of which have 
been presented by well-known authors and scholars. 
(From Geikie's " Ice Age,'' page 91.) " From these 
and similar facts geologists have been inclined to infer 
that at the time the mer de glace covered Scotland the 
whole of our country (Britain) stood at a higher level 
relative to the sea than now; in other words, that a 
large part of what in these days forms the floor of the 
sea was at that time in the condition of dry land." 

Again (same page), " The German Ocean between 
England and the coast of France, and the Netherlands, 
does not average more than some 150 or 160 feet in 
depth; and the soundings show that the water deepens 
very gradually northwards.'' 

And while we are considering this part of the geo- 
logical field, w^e will examine some further evidence of 
oceanic elevation. Submerged peat-beds containing 
trees and trunks of oak, pine, hickory, walnut, etc., are 
witnesses of recent advance of oceanic waters. These 
are found in abundance around the coasts of England, 
Scotland and Ireland, not only in connection with the 
main land, but in the small outlying islands of the Brit- 
ish seas. (Geikie, pp. 294 and 295.) (See also Sin- 
clair's Acct., vol. xvi, p. 556.) 

On the Frith of Tay are larger tracts of submerged 



144 The Earfh^s Annular System. 

peat-moss, containing hazel-nut and alder, many feet 
below full tide. (Edin. Kog. Soc. Trans., vol. ix, p. 
419.) The same are found on the shores of Tirce and 
Coll. (Edin. Jour. Phil, vol. vii, p. 125.) They are 
found in abundance on the northern coast of the con- 
tinent, from France to Denmark and Sweden. Sub- 
merged forests abound along the coasts of Brittany, 
Normandy, and the Channel Islands, as well as off the 
shores of Holland, and also on the Alaskan and Siberian 
shores. 

Can we come to any other reasonable conclusion than 
that the northeast Atlantic and the German Ocean 
have largely augmented their domain, in comparatively 
recent times? We have reports of submerged forests 
on the wide circuit of the ocean world. Scarcely any 
considerable part of the globe whose boundaries lie by 
sea, does not exhibit some such evidence. 

Captain Herandeen, who spent many, years on the 
Pacific Ocean, has given some interesting and valuable 
evidence in regard to the great insular continent that 
now sleeps under its waters. I draw briefly from one 
of his narratives : '^ But there is other evidence which 
is more interesting, because it relates to the great decay 
of a great race of people that once inhabited the region. 
A few years ago I stopped at Pouynipete Island, in the 
Pacific, in east longitude 158° 22' and north latitude 
60° 50'. The island is surrounded by a reef, with a 
broad ship channel between it and the island. 

"At places in the reef there were natural breaks that 
served as entrances to the harbors. In these ship- 
channels there were a number of islands, many of 
which were surrounded by a wall of stone five or six 
feet high, and on those islands there stood a great many 



Oceanic Downfalls. 145 

low houses built of the same kind of stone as the walls 
about them. These structures seem to have been used 
as temples and forts. The singular feature of these 
islands is that the walls are a foot or more below the 
water. When they were built they were evidently 
above the water and connected with the main-land, but 
they have gradually sunk until the sea has risen a foot 
or more around them. The natives on the islands do 
not know when these works were built; it is so far back 
in the past that they have even no tradition of the struc- 
tures. Yet the works show great signs of skill, and 
certainly prove that whoever built them knew thor- 
oughly how to transport and lift heavy blocks of stone. 
Up in the mountains of the island there is a quarry of 
the same kind of stone that was used in building the 
wall about the islands, and in that quarry to-day there 
are great blocks of stone that have been hewn out ready 
for transportation. The natives are in greater ignor- 
ance of the phenomena that are going on about them 
than the white man who touches on their island for a 
few hours for water. There is no doubt in my mind 
that the island was once inhabited by an intelligent race 
of people, who built the temples and forts of heavy 
masonry on the high bluffs of the shore of the island, 
and that as the land gradually subsided these bluffs be- 
came islands. They stand to-day with a solid wall of 
stone around them, partly submerged in water.'' 

Thus we not only meet with the strongest evidence 
that the waters have arisen on the shores of the con- 
tinents, severing in numberless instances islands from 
the main land, as England from Europe, and the West 
Indies from the American continent, but in the very 
heart of the oceans we find the same testimony in im- 



146 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

perishable monuments. How often has this aged world 
of ours been shaken by the mightiest revulsions ! How 
many races similar to man, the masterpiece of the 
Creator, have felt the blow of inexorable fate ! — races 
of sentient beings that may have lived amid the flourish 
of empires, and the shock of death, till swept as by a 
stroke from the earth, before the Adamite or Edenic 
man came upon the scene. Here, blocks hewn from 
the mountain quarry have significant meaning. Left 
in confusion they argue that the workmen were sud- 
denly driven from the quarry, just as in many other 
cases in other parts of the earth. The ancient copper 
mines of Lake Superior, in several instances, show that 
the old miners that used the flint and other stone im- 
plements, were suddenly swept from their place of 
work, never to return. Their axes, hammers, wedges, 
etc., left lying around in the utmost confusion, and cov- 
ered with flood-detritus in deep excavation, tell an un- 
mistakable tale of sudden and violent catastrophe. 

All over the ocean world then — where rivers empty 
their waters; where inlets lie embosomed in forest and 
rock; where straits separate mighty continents, and 
connect ocean with ocean, and sea with sea; where 
islands rise from the restless wave, in the very midst of 
boundless oceans; wherever we may chance to turn our 
gaze upon the watery world, — we see, it seems to me, 
the most surprising evidence that the earth's waters 
have been greatly augmented in modern times. Tell 
me, what else could have raised the waters so generally 
over the earth ? Is it not plain that the vast expanse of 
the Pacific continent subsiding, would have drawn such 
vast volumes of water from the shores of other con- 
tinents, that rivers would be free to pour their waters 



Oceanic Downfalls. 147 

with rapid flow into the sea? Dana says the sunken 
continent of the Pacific is 6,000 miles long, and from 
1,200 to 2,000 miles broad, and makes out that it has 
sunk more than 3,000 feet. If we make this less hj 
100 times, we must even then, by some means, find a 
source for those waters which again filled the estuaries 
after they were drained by the ocean's sinking bed. 
We cannot conceive of such an enormous area of sea 
bottom, sinking even to the extent of a single foot, with- 
out increasing the rapidity of the flow of river jwaters 
at their outlets. But where, on the wide face of the 
earth, do we see this to be the case ? Since we see the 
reverse to be almost the universal rule, it seems to me 
we are simply compelled to admit that the ocean's 
waters have climbed upon the shores of all the conti- 
nents. ITow the fact that such coasts as those of ITor- 
way and Sweden and some islands in the JN"orth Pacific 
have been elevated in modern times does not in the 
least oppose these ideas; for the fact that we are able 
to prove that they have been elevated from the sea, 
only proves that they, too, were submerged, increasing 
the necessity of admitting the fact of oceanic augmenta- 
tion. 

What, then, does that buried continent prove ? Does 
it not prove that a mighty deluge did desolate the 
earth? And as it is a fact which every one is forced 
to admit, that in the Noachian period a vast deluge of 
v/aters did come from beyond the region of clouds and 
rains, we cannot avoid the conclusion that the ocean's 
volume was then increased. 

I:^ow let me ask the reader, what conclusion must we 
draw from the array of facts now before us ? Did the 
primitive vapors return to the earth as they condensed 



148 The Earth's Annular System. 

in primitive times, contrary to law universal and un- 
changeable? Is it not within the conception of every 
one, that if all the waters of the earth fell on the 
archsean sphere, then there never was a deluge ? That 
there never were waters above the firmament? That 
the sun came into view in primitive times ? That con- 
sequently there never was a day of physical rest; nor 
a day when it did not rain, nor a time when man dwelt 
naked on earth; nor an Eden clime? Then the rain- 
bow was a common occurrence in all times, and can in 
no sense be a token of God's promise to man. Then 
man always lived in this present environment, and his 
days were always three score and ten years. In short, 
the whole Edenic narrative becomes one meaningless 
tissue of contradictions, beyond the pale of law. If 
the waters of the earth were not increased under the 
cognizance of the human race, what can the first eight 
chapters of Genesis mean ? Refuse to admit this philo- 
sophic necessity, and we are plunged into the darkness 
of midnight. Ineffable harmony and beauty becomes 
hideous disorder and deformity. And now when we 
take a comprehensive glance at the seas of the earth, 
and can find but one grand chain of evidence in support 
of " upper waters; '' in short, as we find the globe to- 
day one marvelous and comprehensive argument, in de- 
fense of Edenic history, — an argument which is the 
voice of law; I must say, with emphasis, the earth's an- 
nular system was a physical and necessary fact. 

We started on our tour of investigation with the in- 
fant earth T\Tapped in the swaddling garments of 
flame, and rocked in the cradle of primitive fire. Meas- 
ureless cycles rolled away, and then we saw the youth- 
ful orb flying through space, a glowing and vitalizing 



Oceanic Downfalls. 149 

sun. Revolving around the eternal throne of implacable 
law, as its fires smouldered away its oceans gathered 
around it. Away down the vistas of time we see plans 
perfected. The world unfolds at the beck of Deity. 
Man, the masterpiece of the Omnipotent Designer, 
familiar by actual contact and knowledge with the 
great canopy of vapors, has sent down to us a most 
faithful and inexpressibly harmonious history. The 
rock-bound records confirm its details. The ocean 
unites with the inevitable verdict, and the annular 
theory stands a citadel of rock. We have proven it 
first by mathematical reasoning and philosophic neces- 
sity. Then we have proven it by the mineral character 
and philosophic disposition, of strata. And again 
we have proven it by analogous facts relating to our 
sister worlds, belted and ringed under the reign of law. 
Then, again, we have proven it by the action of our 
own satellite. Then we have taken the records of man, 
rude and mysterious, and have shown by the very na- 
ture of those ancient writings that they declare and re- 
declare, again and again, the truth of my claim. So 
that if all other evidence were cast aside, if all the 
demonstrations, and doubly riveted links of testimony 
before adduced, were entirely left out of the argument, 
the first eight chapters of Genesis alone afford a proof 
so abundant and positive that no sane man, it seems to 
me, can for a moment doubt that they are a true and 
faithful delineation of the earth's annular appendage. 

What kind of a chain of evidence have we then, with 
all these witnesses testifying to the same thing? And 
after we have so firmly established this thing; when we 
examine the waters on the earth and find that they bear 
witness to the same thing in such a way as to become 



150 The EarWs Annular System. 

a demonstration in themselves, surely my readers will 
pardon the egotism : I have proven so far as positive evi- 
dence can prove anything, that this earth had an annu- 
lar appendage from the remotest period of archsean 
time, through the ages to the days of Noah. 

!N'ow if the reader choose he may cast all this evi- 
dence aside, and we will begin a new series of demon- 
strations. He may throw away every page of testimony 
I have given, and I will prove the same great truth to 
him by testimony from other fields of investigation. 
We have scarcely entered the field. Our work has just 
begun. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SOME TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES THAT PROVE THE 
DECLENSION OF EXTERIOR MATTER. 

It must be admitted by all who concede the truth 
of the nebular hypothesis, by all who admit that this 
planet was ever in a state of igneous fusion, that the 
mass composing the great ocean of primitive vapors 
that surrounded it was impregnated with vast quan- 
tities of elementary mineral and metallic matter. This 
is so evident that I need do nothing more now than call 
the reader's attention to it. I also need but call his 
attention to the fact that when the upper waters, or 
vapors, with their associated matter, fell to the earth, 
they must have made temporary seas, lakes and ponds, 
etc., in all parts of the earth where they fell. The 
narrow channels of thousands of rivers could not permit 
the mighty floods to immediately retire. In those 
lakes and seas would be deposited the precipitates and 
exotic solid matter of the annular waters, and especially 
so in regions beyond the tropics; and the nearer we ap- 
proach the polar regions, the more abundantly we 
would find this exotic matter. This must be essen- 
tially the case, if there be a polarwise tendency to de- 
clining belts, etc. But what kind of precipitates must 
we expect to find? Let us determine this matter 
before we search for it. First and most important of 
all the elements of the earth's crust is carbon. Of the 
sixty thousand feet of aqueous beds there is probably 
none of which this element does not form an important 
constituent. Hence we have no possible means of 



152 The Earth's Annular System. 

escaping the conclusion that the earth's primitive atmos- 
phere, — largely the products of igneous action, — con- 
tained vast quantities of carbon sublimed or distilled 
in the earth's glowing crucible. Let the reader see, 
before he proceeds farther, that we are irretrievably 
committed to this conclusion. As it would be an utter 
impossibility for this earth to be now reduced to a 
molten condition without sending up an immensity of 
unconsumed carbon, in the form of smoke, so it must 
be a settled and absolute fact that the primitive burn- 
ing earth, from the very day it became the seat of fiery 
fusion, repelled from its heated bosom, and held in sus- 
pension, unconsumed carbon or smoke. Every chem- 
ist familiar even with the rudiments of his science, will 
tell us this must have been the case. To conclude 
otherwise would force the admission that the primitive 
atmosphere was an ocean of oxygen, which simply could 
not have been the case. Hence we are driven to this 
unavoidable end.* The primitive earth was a burning 
world, and therefore a smoking world, and that uncon- 
sumed carbon commingled with the annular vapors, 
just as it would to-day, in the form of black, sooty, 
pitchy matter. As we cannot avoid the conclusion that 
unconsumed carbon was mechanically combined with 
the upper vapors, so also we are made to admit that it 
mingled with them in the form of soot. Can the 
reader find a flaw in these statements? But if this 
sooty, carbonaceous matter mingled with the exterior 

* All the matter composing the earth fell to it, either before 
aqueous attrition began, or afterwards, or partly before and 
partly afterwards. Then all the matter composing the aqueous 
crust fell to the earth in the later stages of its evolution. What 
reason, then, can be urged against the fall of the tellurio-cosmic 
matter being continued all through the geologic ages, at the same 
time that aqueous denudation went on? 



Some Topographical Features. 153 

vapors, then they fell in company. And the waters 
that stood in " seas/' " lakes," " ponds," etc., at the 
time of the deluge, deposited this carbon as a layer of 
black carbonaceous mud upon their bottoms; for we 
cannot admit that even the last remnants of the annular 
waters were not associated therewith, just as the belts 
of Jupiter and Saturn are darkened by such sooty mat- 
ter to-day. ISTow we may see some meaning in some of 
the flood legends, which declare that the waters of the 
deluge were a " pitchy blackness." 

If, then, we succeed in finding this black carbona- 
ceous matter at the bottom of inland seas, lakes, etc., or 
spread out over extensive plains, that were formerly 
covered by standing water, we must see a wonderful 
dovetailing of facts, that add strength to our theory. 
I hold such deposits must be found, in order that the 
theory be fully vindicated. I have no need to tell 
geologists of the tens of thousands of lakes, planted in 
the drift deposits of ]^orth America and Northern 
Europe, whose bottoms are known to consist largely of 
the very carbon we need to find to sustain our views. 
Hundreds of them have been drained in ISTorthern Ohio 
and in Michigan and other States, some for agricultural 
purposes, some in the construction of canals and rail- 
roads, and almost invariably they present the same feat- 
ures. Many of these ponds that I have personally exam- 
ined had no vegetation, and therefore the carbon could 
not have been a peat formation. While those which had 
been converted into swamps, and covered with peat- 
growth, had the peat formation underlain by the primi- 
tive carbon which everywhere presents its own charac- 
teristics. These things are subjects of ocular demon- 
stration, which any one can verify for himself. There 



154 The Earth's Annular System. 

are more than ten thousand ponds and lakelets in Min- 
nesota alone, and so far as I have been able to learn 
from them, they abundantly support the claim here 
made. They are found in many parts of northern In- 
diana, Illinois and Iowa, where I have personally ex- 
amined some of them, and find the same evidence. A 
layer of black carbonaceous mud lies at the bottom of 
the lakes that have been thus far explored, — carbon 
that cannot be called peat ! and since there can be but 
one other source, its origin is apparent. 

I suppose there are but few of my readers who are 
not aware of the fact that a black carbonaceous soil is 
the superficial covering of many of the northern and 
northwestern States, — a coating of exceedingly black, 
soot-like matter, strikingly different from that of the 
adjacent States, l^ow since it is well-known to geolo- 
gists that all this region thus overlain was once the bed 
of a vast inland sea, covering more than half a million 
square miles; in the eyes of the geologists at least, we 
have one feature established that points to a deposit 
of light, primitive carbon from on high — viz., the fact 
that a sea existed, which was necessary for its distri- 
bution and deposition. But as these pages are intended 
for all readers, my next duty evidently is to prove that 
such a sea did exist, and then to prove that the super- 
ficial covering is a deposit of annular soot. 

Again, let us see that we start with known and uni- 
versally admitted premises. On the west of this great 
basin rises the mighty wall of the Rocky Mountains, 
and since the close of the tertiary age it has been a 
great divide between the waters running westward and 
those running eastward. Between the waters of the 
Arkansas and those of the Missouri, is another divide 



i 



8ome Topographical Features. 155 

running eastward from the Kockj Mountains through 
.southern Kansas, and abruptly terminating at the Mis- 
sissippi Eiver, as the spurs of the Ozark Mountains. 
This Ozark range is another wall vastly older than 
either the Allegheny or the Rocky Mountains. The 
archaean beds that compose much of its course prove 
that it was one of the oldest wrinkles on the continent. 
With the exception of the gap through which the 
Mississippi flows this ancient wall is continued un- 
broken till it joins with the mountains of Tennessee and 
Kentucky. Here, then, we have a western wall dating 
back to the tertiary, and a southern wall, much older, 
broken only by the waters of the Mississippi. ITow 
from a point a few miles south of the mouth of the 
Kaskaskia River, the Mississippi River runs between 
walls more than 700 feet higher than the bed of the 
stream. A wide channel has been cut through this 
southern wall in modern geologic times. For there is 
the gap through which the waters now run; and there 
is the ancient wall continued on either side of the 
stream. Suppose, then, this great gap were again 
filled up; any one can see that it would dam up the 
waters, which would again arise and submerge much of 
the Western States, and cause the waters to run 
through the only other outlet possible — the St. Law- 
rence valley, — thus forming a great inland sea, the very 
object we desire. Thus when the Ozarks were upheaved 
among the oldest plications of the earth, the new-born 
continent, from about the 35th or 36th degree of north 
latitude, drained its waters northward, and those from 
the Rocky Mountains afterwards ran eastward. But the 
great Canadian highland, separating the waters of the 
St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes from those emptying 



156 The Earth's Annular System. 

into Hudson Bay, is considered by all geologists as the 
oldest range of highlands on the earth. Here, then, we 
have a north wall bordering the Great Lake or inland 
sea-basin, reaching from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
Eocky Mountains, and interrupted only by the elevated 
depression of the Ked Eiver Valley of the l^orth. As 
these are simple facts which all geologists will admit, I 
need not advance any further evidence to prove that the 
Great Basin drained by the ^orth Mississippi and its 
tributaries is bounded on the north, west and south by 
walls of great age. But if this be true, we must admit 
that immediately following the tertiary age all the 
waters of the IsTorth Mississippi Valley, and those of the 
Ohio, flowed eastward and northward, and emptied 
their waters through the St. Lawrence into the Atlan- 
tic; for it is a matter of universal consent that the l^ew 
England mountains are geologically of very recent 
origin. Hence there was a time when there was a vast 
basin, walled on all its sides, except the eastern, — an 
age when IsTew England was covered by the sea, — and a 
vast river running from the Kocky Mountains received 
its hundreds of tributaries from all sides and emptied 
its waters as the St. Lawrence now does. One glance 
at the ancient rim of this basin must force this conclu- 
sion. What a wonderful revolution must have taken 
place in the drainage lines of the continent ! To con- 
ceive the great Missouri, threading its way among 
mighty forests across the States of Iowa and Hlinois, 
and emptying into Lake Michigan, may seem to border 
on the visionary. But let us remember that grander 
and mightier changes have left their way-marks upon 
the earth. It is the only conclusion we can come to, as 
we reflect, that two great parallel primitive mountain 



J 



Some TopograpJiical Features. 157 

ranges — the Ozarks and the Laurentian Ridge — ex- 
tended east and west across the infant continent, when 
the Cordilleras were heaved from the deep. But lest 
the reader may think I have strained the evidence here 
produced, I will compromise so far as to only claim a 
probability that this was the drainage system of this 
Great Basin, and we will bring in other testimony to 
establish this point. 

If it be true that this was the condition of the basin 
at the time referred to, then, when the New England 
Mountains were lifted from the ocean, it threw a great 
barrier across the St. Lawrence, and forced its waters 
back upon the valley, commingling the marine faunae 
with those of fresh water. How truly this is the case, 
all geologists familiar with this territory know full well. 
Imagine then a new wall raised upon the eastern shore 
of the basin. Inch by inch the confined waters accumu- 
late. The St. Lawrence Valley becomes first the bed 
of a salt water lake. As the waters increase it grows 
brackish, and finally fresh. The location of marine 
faunae in abundance in the country east of Montreal, 
and fresh water shells on the west, and the com- 
mingling of them in the elevated terraces near Quebec, 
certainly strengthen the claim I have advanced. But 
when we behold the wonderful mural heights a few 
miles below Quebec, between which the St. Lawrence 
now flows, a still stronger evidence is added. How did 
this river ever force its way through this embrasure ? 
On either side of the river are mountain heights that 
doubtless were once joined as a natural breast-work 
across the stream. Geologists will all admit that this 
eastern wall must have been lifted more than 500 feet 
above the level of the ocean, in very recent times. 



158 The Earth's Annular System. 

But this rQUch of a wall across the St. Lawrence would 
have backed its waters, and have buried Lake Ontario 
more than 300 feet. Lake Erie would have spread its 
waters into Lake Michigan, and all northern Illinois 
and Indiana, and much of Iowa would have been under 
water. Then if the Ozark wall were at the same time 
joined across the Mississippi, the four sides of the Great 
Basin would be completed. And when I survey all 
the evidence, it seems to me that this must have been 
the precise way in which the waters of this vast inland 
sea were confined. 

Then for a more complete verification of this claim 
let us imagine a great mediterranean sea, more than 100 
times as large as Lake Michigan, to have existed in this 
basin, and its waters to have accumulated on account 
of Eastern upheaval. We aU can see that this vast 
stretch of territory is a veritable basin whose sides are 
of more than sufficient height, if filled with water, to 
form an inland sea more than one hundred times the 
size of Lake Michigan, more than 600 feet deep in the 
lowest part of the basin — i.e., in the region of the Great 
Lakes. If we could build a wall across the Mississippi, 
or rather restore the wall which countless ages have 
worn away, and again build up the mighty parapet that 
once stretched across the St. Lawrence a short distance 
below Quebec, a great sea would again accumulate. 
Step by step we would see the waters gathering in these 
two valleys. Year by year the broad expanse of 
prairie would become submerged, millions of acres of 
forests and numberless animals would become involved 
in universal death. 'Now, I hold that such an inland 
sea did accumulate over all this vast extent of land 
immediately after the ^ew England mountains arose 



Some Topographical Features. 159 

from the sea, and that this conclusion is supported by 
the most overwhelming evidence. Then, as before 
stated, let us imagine such a sea to have accumulated 
over a territory once teeming with abundant life, while 
we examine the evidence. 

First, then, there are the three primitive walls on 
three sides of a great basin. Secondly, the fourth or 
eastern wall was reared across the only probable (may 
I not say possible?) drainage outlet. Thirdly, the 
greater part of this basin of more than 500,000 square 
miles in area, presents uncontested and incontestable 
evidence of having, in very recent geologic times, been 
the bed, over which, for unknown centuries rolled the 
waves of a fresh water sea. 

A few facts may now be stated still further confirm- 
atory of this view: Over all this territory lie entombed 
in a fresh water bed of recent origin, the remains of the 
mammoth, mastodon, and other huge pachyderms of 
interdiluvian times, while in the New England moun- 
tains there are none; save possibly here and there a 
single bone, carried perhaps by rivers from the basin 
into the ocean. This, it will be seen, argues that while 
these great quadrupeds luxuriated in the Great Basin 
Valley, the body of New England was sleeping in the 
sea. Again over this Great Basin Valley, are innumer- 
able old river channels now filled with detritus, where 
no streams now flow, and which have been filled in re- 
cent times by over-towering waters. And again in al- 
most every part of this basin, where examinations of 
these superficial deposits have been made, are found the 
remains of ancient forests, trees, stumps, limbs, leaves, 
seeds, grasses, etc., etc., plainly attesting that this cov- 
ering was quietly deposited upon a vast area of grow- 



160 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

ing vegetation. There is the buried soil; there is the 
vegetation it bore; and there are the animals that 
luxuriated thereon, all forever shut up in a mighty 
charnel house. Could this ever have happened; could 
these conditions ever have been brought about except 
in the manner here suggested? Thus, link after link 
added to the chain of evidence seems to banish every 
doubt, that there was, over this vast territory before 
named, long after the close of the last glacial epoch, 
a wide expanse of fresh water. After the glacial 
epoch, for the mud and silt was quietly settled upon 
a surface almost universally glaciated; and of fresh 
water, because of the total absence of marine shells, 
except as before stated in the lower part of the St. 
Lawrence Valley; and perhaps an occasional one carried 
from its original bed by transporting agencies. Again, 
where can there be found any other barrier to confine 
such a sea as all geologists admit gave rise to this super- 
ficial formation ? We will search in vain for any other 
boundaries ! 

It seems then that the very presence of such a vast 
body of matter collected upon this area, must have, by 
actual mechanical pressure, depressed it somewhat, so 
that the surrounding ocean must have stood higher on 
the shores of the continent while that pressure existed 
than before or afterwards, ^ow this is a feature well 
known to geologists. Who is he that does not claim 
that the continent, or at least a great part, has recently 
been raised to a higher level ? Can it make any differ- 
ence whether the earth's interior be a molten mass, or 
a solid, plastic under the reign of implacable heat, when 
this transfer of mechanical energy from the continent 
and the ocean is accounted for? I cannot conceive 



Some Topographical Features, 161 

how the measureless weight of a great mediterranean 
sea, could be removed from one part of the earth to 
another, without changing the water-line of the con- 
tinent relieved of that weight. It is not far back in the 
geological history of the lower Mississippi, when the 
waters of the GuK of Mexico reached the mouth of the 
Arkansas, and again retired, but to again approach as 
the ocean's waters were augmented. And one who is 
familiar with the features resulting from these great 
changes can, with but little difficulty, link them in order 
of time with the recession of these inland waters. 

But we have now so nearly approached an unavoid- 
able conclusion that but little is needed to reduce it to 
a demonstration. The great hypothetic sea has long 
since retired. Can we not find the tracks, — the way- 
marks of its retreat, and make them depose in support 
of our claim. Let us attempt it. 

The great waters thus hypotheticated, I vdll call the 
Miller ian Sea.* Considering the depressing effects it 
likely had upon its bed, it must, at the time of its ex- 
istence, have received the waters from a large expanse 
of Canadian highlands. The Millerian Sea by some 
grand process made for itself two great outlets — i.e., 
the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. Making due al- 
lowance for all likely depression, as shown by marine 
estuary deposits in the present river valleys, that sea 
must have towered from 700 to 800 feet above the 

* I have thus named it in honor of my aged friend, Morris 
Miller, who many years ago directed my attention to the south- 
ern boundary of this sea, and who outlined it almost precisely 
as the late geological surveys have outlined the glaciated area. 
Now if this boundary be true for the glacier, it must also be true 
for the sea. Those desiring to learn further of the Millerian sea 
and the great floods attending the rupture of its boundaries, may 
obtain much from the author's lecture on the same in Volume 
II. of the annular theory. 



162 The EarWs Annular System. 

ocean. We can then faintly imagine with what terrific 
force its waters rushed to the boundaries of the con- 
tinent when their ramparts by some process were rup- 
tured. 

We are now brought face to face with a question that 
apparently defies solution without the aid of " upper 
waters." How did this sea make for itself two outlets ? 
Can we imagine a lake bursting its walls and rushing 
to the sea through two outlets, and continuing to cut 
down deep channels until it is drained? How did it 
ever occur that the St. Lawrence break accommodated 
the Mississippi rupture by not drawing the waters east- 
ward and away from the latter? How did it happen 
that the Mississippi break did not close the St. Law- 
rence outflow, by drawing the waters thence? How 
did it happen that both breaks in opposite extremities 
of the boundary were made at the same time? Why 
did they mutually keep pace with each other, until the 
waters cut downwards and backwards channels for two 
of the greatest rivers of the earth ? It is scarcely pos- 
sible that in ordinary course of drainage the waters 
would not all have been drawn to one outlet. To ac- 
count, then, for the two breaks and the two river sys- 
tems, we are forced to admit that some vast and meas- 
ureless supply of descending waters made the Millerian 
Sea to leap its barriers at both points, at one and the 
same time, and that that supplying-source kept up the 
waters so long that the excavations were far advanced 
under its government ; after which each excavation con- 
tinued independently. 

But, if such a source supplied the retiring sea with 
waters, it must also have supplied a black sooty car- 
bon, that settled to the bottom of the sea, forming the 



i 



Some Topographical Features. 163 

very superfice of the sea bed, when the waters receded. 
Now where must we find this carbonaceous covering, if 
it did fall? Certainly more abundantly in the north- 
ern, middle and western part of the basin. For the 
northern and northwestern slopes of the continent must 
have supplied it, for there alone were the rivers that 
could bear it seawards. And when it once reached the 
sea, the tendency would be for it to move with the 
moving waters toward the southern break. Then the 
carbonaceous matter, which I beg leave to denominate 
carhonite, must have settled more largely over the 
States adjoining the Mississippi. 

Well, when one travels over the great prairies of the 
States referred to, he sees nothing more striking than 
the carbonite that covers this vast reach of territory. 
It covers all the hills, it fills all the swamps and sloughs; 
it is the foundation of all peat deposits, and it spreads 
over all the plains — a black top covering, varying from 
a few inches in thickness on the uplands to a few feet 
in the valleys. 

I know I am now, as well as at many other times, 
rejecting popular opinion — that this black, superficial 
coating is the result of a slow accumulation of carbon 
from the annual fires, that probably swept over the re- 
gion in former times ; but while law presides in nature's 
high court of order, this cannot be so. While that uni- 
versal and inexorable devourer, oxygen, is present in 
the atmosphere, every particle of unconsumed carbon 
arising from incomplete combustion, is afterwards con- 
sumed, nothing being left but the ash of vegetation. 
So that so far from being a carbonaceous product, 
black and pitchy as it is, the soil would rather consist 
of the mineral ash accumulation of centuries. We see 



164 The Earth's Annular System. 

this process continually going on around us. The 
dense, black column of unconsumed carbon rising from 
every locomotive, and chimney, is soon seized upon 
and dissipated. Besides it is found in the bottoms of 
ponds and lakelets, where fires did not devour, and 
where streams have not transported it from the sur- 
rounding regions. So surely then as a fire sweeps 
over a plain, leaving blackness in its path, so surely the 
unburnt carbon it leaves behind is re-burnt and made 
to disappear. But there are things that must forever 
set this question at rest. The carbonite when sealed 
from the atmosphere by a covering above it, is a 
purer carbon, and when dug up and exposed to the air 
■svill sometimes take fire spontaneously, but neverthe- 
less leaves a black, ashy compound. This certainly 
proves that it had been covered and sealed from the 
action of the air ever since it fell, and never was the 
product of a burning vegetation. But if unyielding 
law is not sufficient to force compliance in one way, it 
may be in another. If the ten thousand lakelets and 
ponds of the great northwest on whose bottoms rests a 
stratum of carbonite, are not able to settle this ques- 
tion, there is one witness that none will fail to honor: 
Millions of boulders lie in and upon this pitchy soil. If 
prairie fires formed the black soil that covers the fields, 
they did not form that which underlies these lost travelers 
of a former day. Some boulders, when brought by 
ice floating upon the sea, were dropped upon a black, 
pitchy bed at the bottom of that sea. Thus, again, are 
we driven by the logic of facts to the eternal rock of 
Law, and the annular theory is settled still deeper 
upon its immutable foundation. 

Here we find, also, lying immediately under the car- 



Some Topographical Features. 165 

bonite, the same kind of claj that accompanies the car- 
bon deposits of the world. The same tellurio-cosmic 
dust of clay that accompanied every carbon downfall, 
and separating therefrom, settled first because of its 
greater specific gravity. ISTow we may readily under- 
stand why, over so much of the great northwest, there 
is such a lack of forest growth. Is it not a fact with- 
in the comprehension of everyone, that if the treeless 
prairies were not covered by this seedless deposit from 
on high, they would be covered with forests as other 
lands? Is it not also a fact, well known and easy of 
demonstration, that whenever this seedless covering 
has been removed, there forests have sprung up ? The 
rock-soil from which the oak, the hickory, ash, etc., in- 
variably spring, has been covered by an impervious 
bed, seedless as the dust of space, and forest growth is 
an impossibility. There seems to be no other possible 
reason why the deep soil of the prairies is not as other 
strata. In short, it certainly is a fact, that if this 
deposit were the detritus of other and neighboring 
lands, they would be timbered as other lands. Here, 
then, is solved another perplexing problem. 

A sufficient amount of evidence of sudden accessions 
of water throughout the vast lapse of time, during 
which the Millerian Sea was retiring, might be collated 
to fill a volume of itself; and it would be a pleasing task 
to give it now to the reader, but I must move on to 
other fields. 

Look at the millions of valleys, channels and minor 
corrugations that have been made by the excavating 
power of running water ! I can count fifty of them 
from my window to-day, through which no water runs, 
except during a rain. From yonder range of hills 



166 The EarWs Annular System. 

radiate deep channels that evidently could not have 
been made by such rains as fall at this age. Fifty 
years ago these hills were covered by the primeval for- 
ests, and rains could make no more impression upon 
them then than now. The autumn leaves gathered in 
these long trenches and hindered excavation. There the 
grass, shrubs and bushes are growing, and only when 
it rains, a powerless stream threads its way to the creek 
below. Did such transient puny streams make these 
deep gaps in the hillside ? It cannot be. Yonder is 
a valley two miles wide, and the merest rill is the only 
excavating agent that occupies it. It is only one of 
thousands and millions that ramify in all directions the 
world over. And as I contemplate the puny agent and 
the grand result, I am forced to say that nothing less 
competent than appalling down-rushes of devouring 
floods could have made these streamless channels. And 
when I have stood before the grand old ocean, driving 
its devouring waves against the shore, and tossing its 
flowing mane on high, and have remembered that there 
are waters enough there to make one thousand floods, 
each of which would cover the entire earth fifteen or 
twenty feet deep; and remembering that these waters 
fell from " above the firmament " as fearful cataclysms ; 
I see the world again and again writhing in the serpent 
folds of the deluge. I see man in the mysterious plan- 
ning of Deity, the victim of immovable decree. Oh, 
Thou incomprehensibly mighty One ! Shall man^s 
mortal eye ever penetrate this veil and read what lies 
beyond ? 




Fig. C. THE CLOSING SCENE. 
(Eaeth with Belts Capping the Poles.) 

Fig. 6 represents the earth stripped of its annular appendage 
and with its last lingering canopy suspended over the regions of 
both poles as vast clouds. Over the tropics and much of the tem- 
perate /ones the vapors had become so thin that the clear sky 
could be seen at times and in places. The sun shone into this thin 
vapor sky and made it a most brilliant illuminator. The sun itself 
was dimly seen in this effulgent heaven as a conquering hero wag- 
ing victorious contests with vapor fees. I have found this white 
and shining heaven with a hidden sun in the ancient thought ot 
many peoples. This was the " Peplos " that Penelope wove in 
the day and unwove at night — a brilliant veil of vapors that il- 
luminated the Avhole earth. But the God of nature had decreed 
that it should be taken down, and He destroyed " the face ot the 
covering cast over all people and the veil that was spread over 
all nations." Is. 25: 7. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GLACIAL EPOCHS AND EDEN RUINS. 
ANNULAR SNOWS THE ONLY COMPETENT CAUSE. 

Perhaps about 80,000 years ago,* the earth, now 
teeming with multifarious forms of life, was a scene of 
death and almost boundless desolation. The unmis- 
takable language of the geologic record is that there 
had just closed a long era of perpetual spring, f The 
mammoth, mastodon, and a multitude of other huge 
quadrupeds, whose giant remains are found in the 
world's stupendous wreck, fed upon the products of a 
tropical and semi-tropical earth. Cotemporary perhaps 
with these lived that race of beings upon whom we 
must look as the precursors of man. That was pre- 
eminently the age of huge pachyderms and other giant 
races. Their remains indicate that they were much 
larger than their living representatives of to-day. In 
looking over this pre-glacial — it may be inter-glacial 
world — the investigator is forcibly struck with its mani- 
fest completeness. It would seem that if there ever 
was an age when the earth came forth from the hand 
of the Great Architect in perfection, ready for the 
advent of man, and all that was necessary for his com- 
fort aiid happiness, it was then. It was unmistakably 
a green-house world. The primitive elephant, and 
many of his congeners and contemporaries, fed in lux- 
uriant forests, and grassy plains, where now the glaciers 

* Geikie's " Great Ice Age," page 135. 
t Belcher's " Last Arctic Voyage," Vol. I., page 380. 



168 The Earth's Annular System. 

of the arctic world are holding them in relentless 
grasp, or grinding their bones to dust. How shall we 
account for this wondrous change — a comprehensive 
and universal change, so sudden and appalling as to 
leave upon the mind the impression that a far-reaching 
and all-involving destruction had overtaken the fair 
planet ? This change is a well-known way-mark in the 
geologic past. Could the powers of heaven and earth, 
— the tornado and the earthquake, — combine in one 
grand revulsion to crush out the present life-forms of 
the earth, obliterate its cities, and cover in one vast 
rock-covering all that is now seen upon its surface, it 
could be but a repetition of the change that involved 
the pre-glacial world of universal life.* 

ITow, the geologist knows full well what the imme- 
diate cause of this great change was. He knows that, 
as the earth became peopled by an infinitude of living 
forms, under the influence of perpetual spring, in a 
tropical or semi-tropical world, so it became desolated 
by refrigeration, and the spread of snows and ice over 
the continents. These Titan plows, — glaciers and ice- 
bergs, — from the polar regions, again moved toward 
the equator, and continued to increase, until almost 
every valley within the temperate zones was filled with 
ice. The glaciers plowed the plain, scarred the hill- 
tops and carved the mountain side. jSTay, hills were 
pushed aside by their resistless progress; valleys and 
river-systems obliterated and a living world made a 
panorama of universal death; in short, ground up and 
remodeled the surface of the luxuriant earth, for the 
introduction of new, but similar, forms of life. 

It is a part of the labors of geologists to read and 

* Geikie's " Great Ice Age," page 460; also pages 484 and 341. 



The Glacial Epochs. 169 

study the " records/' and give, if possible, a competent 
cause of these great revolutions. Many theories have 
been advanced in order to explain them, but few of 
them possess even the air of plausibility, and have been 
relegated to quiet oblivion. Among those having 
claims to our consideration, is that proposed by Dr. J. 
Croll, and which has the powerful endorsement of Gei- 
kie, in his admirable volume, the " Great Ice Age.'' It 
may be a lack in my power to comprehend it, — and yet 
there seems nothing puzzling in it, — but I am un- 
able to see how a man of deep penetration can find 
natural law to defend it. To examine it in detail would 
swell this volume beyond its intended limits. I shall, 
therefore, state but few objections which I think must, 
in the mind of reasonable men, be fatal to it; and then 
advance the aqueous falls of the earth's annular sys- 
tem as the competent cause. 

It will be necessary to explain some parts of the 
Crollian theory of glacial epochs to the common 
reader. It is well known that the earth's orbit is not 
circular, but in the form of an ellipse. So that in its 
annual circuit around the sun, the earth once in the 
year approaches much nearer to that luminary than it 
would were its orbit an exact circle. Consequently, 
once in the year it recedes to a greater distance from 
it. The sun also being located not in the center of the 
earth's orbit, but, as it were, in one end of an ellipse, 
the earth whilst in the other end is far removed from 
solar warmth. Again the orbit is subject to exceed- 
ingly slow changes in shape, by which, in time, it is so 
far removed from the form of a circle that it becomes 
very eccentric, and the earth, of course, must recede to 
a vast distance from the sun. l^ow. Dr. Croll con- 



170 The Earth's Annular System. 

ceives that the globe, when in the aphelion part of its 
path, or farthest from the sun, accumulates more snow3 
in its polar regions during its winters than the heat of 
summer is able to dissipate, which after ages of accumu- 
lation amounts to a glacial fund, and causes long 
periods of refrigeration or excessive cold. While this 
theory appears plausible at first sight, it is far from 
able to abide the test of analytical reasoning and philo- 
sophic law. 

First: It ignores the law, long ago laid down by 
that prince of philosophers, John Tyndall, which may 
be briefly stated thus : Snows, to be formed, require the 
expenditure of solar energy, and the greater the amount 
of snows, the greater the energy required. To take 
the earth from the sun, then, robs it of snows, and of 
the possibility of the accumulation of snows. One 
would not think of increasing the working force of his 
engine by robbing it of fuel. I know there are a great 
many circumstances and qualifying conditions that may 
be pointed to ; but under all conditions the fact remains, 
that, to cover the earth with ice and snow, you must in- 
crease rather than diminish the engine force. 

Second: It makes almost an infinite number of gla- 
cial periods, in the vast ages of paleozoic and subsequent 
times, whereas they are few and definite, which both 
the Silurian and devonian order of stratification abun- 
dantly declare. 

Third: It makes the glacial periods regularly recur- 
ring visitations, while there is not the slightest evi- 
dence to be gleaned from the vast ages of geologic 
time that they did so recur. On the contrary, the evi- 
dence is that they came after long and very irregularly 
intervening periods. 



The Glacial Epochs. 171 

Fourth : It is evident that a continent encased with 
ice by means of solar evaporation of the oceanic waters 
could never again become freed from its fetters; for, 
since it requires a great expenditure of solar heat to 
secure the formation of vapors, before snows can pos- 
sibly accumulate, it is plain that the glaciers could 
not be melted unless the heat should become greater. 
But this increased heat would increase evaporation, and 
increased evaporation means, to' some extent, at least, a 
greater precipitation of snows, and an increase of gla- 
ciers. The very energy required to melt the glaciers, 
is the same that would necessarily augment and per- 
petuate them. So that if a continent should once be- 
come refrigerated by increased vaporization, how could 
it possibly become free from the grip of ice ? 

Thus in the very outset we meet most insuperable 
difficulties. We cannot expect the earth to become 
covered with snows by cooling it, and stopping the for- 
mation of aqueous vapor, and the sooner we abandon 
this most unreasonable claim, the earlier will the ques- 
tion be settled. Glacial theories have been rejected 
because they do not present a natural scheme of causa- 
tion and sequence, and as it would be difficult to con- 
ceive of a theory more antagonistic to natural law than 
this one is, is it strange that such men as the illustrious 
Tyndall should hesitate to adopt it ? Prof. Geikie 
says: " JSTo half -explanation will suffice; the key which 
we obtain must open a way into every obscure hole and 
corner; each and every fact have full recognition in the 
theory which may be ultimately adopted.'' The con- 
sideration then of such difficulties as here presented, 
and which are far from obtaining even a " half-explana- 



172 Tlie EartWs Annular System. 

tion/' renders it strange that the Crollian theory should 
ever have received the support of such pov^erful minds. 

If glaciers in all ages were always formed as local 
glaciers are to-day; if the vast continental ice plateaus 
that accumulated mountain high above the ocean's 
level in both hemispheres, were formed in the same way 
as they are made to-day in the Andes, the Alps, and 
the Himalayas, then vaporization under solar energy 
went on synchronically with condensation and precipi- 
tation. But can it be possible that during the glacia- 
tion of a hemisphere, that hemisphere can be both 
warm enough to vaporize the aqueous element, and 
cold enough at the same time to build an ice-continent, 
— embracing millions of square miles? In order to 
produce the mighty ice continents of the glacial periods 
in the !N'orthern Hemisphere, according to the current 
theory, one-half the earth must have maintained a 
genial climate, while the other had a temperature ex- 
cessively arctic. We can imagine the Alpine glaciers 
to be constantly increasing by the vapors wafted over 
them from adjacent lands, warmed by solar heat, — the 
only way that glaciers now are formed, — but v/e can- 
not conceive of vapors carried from heated lands, by 
accommodating currents on a frozen world? To ac- 
count, then, for the glaciation of the interior of conti- 
nents, the snow and ice must have accumulated on its 
borders, and have flowed inwards and upwards from the 
oceans, which as all know was not the case. Hence it 
is conclusive that the glacial periods were not produced 
by glaciers formed as they now are formed. But there 
is no other competent cause for the accumulation of 
such snows than the decline of annular vapors. 

Again, the well-known and peculiar properties of 



The Glacial Epochs, 173 

glacier ice must ahvays hinder its great accumulation, 
unless it accumulates more rapidly than it moves off. 
It flows, and it cannot be heaped up without limit. Its 
rate of motion is in proportion to the slope of its bed 
and the fund of ice. As water, by flowing, exhausts 
the supply, and cannot accumulate unless the supply is 
more rapid than the flow; so a glacier cannot increase 
unless the snows that form it are supplied more rapidly 
than it can retire. What, then, must have been the 
source of those snows that built a mighty continental 
ice-cap over the iTorthern Hemisphere during the last 
glacial epoch ? With every opportunity to move down 
a thousand valleys and slopes to the south, or toward 
the seas, with every foot of increase in the depth of ice 
necessarily increasing its outward flow, I must claim, 
that the earth has not now any source from which such 
a mass of ice could be supplied; and I am therefore 
driven to the grand and all-competent source of tel- 
lurio-cosmic snows in the earth's annular system. 

As during the J^oachian deluge the earth could have 
been desolated by surging and heaping floods from no 
other source than the " waters above the firmament,'' 
falling in medial latitudes; so we cannot expect to 
cover a continent with towering snows from any other 
source. Men of science must not conclude that glaciers 
always accumulated by the puny process that now 
builds a local ice-heap in a mountain valley. They must 
rise to a grander conception. The foundation of the gla- 
ciation of planets was laid in the igneous era. The im- 
placable heat of the primitive earth necessitated the 
glacial epochs, and the present process of vaporization 
and congelation under solar influence is an insignificant 
process in the same direction by different means. Is 



174 The Earth's Annular System. 

it not a fact within the comprehension of all persons 
that if glaciers had no other source at any time than 
they now have, the arctic ice could never have moved 
over the E'orthern Hemisphere ? Is it not a fact that 
they do not now accumulate in any land? The great 
Humboldt Mer-de-glace of Greenland, moves toward 
the sea, and the more rapidly the snow accumulates and 
hardens into glacier ice the more rapid is its motion 
coast-wise. So that neither in temperate latitudes 
nor in frigid climes can glaciers indefinitely accumulate 
by evaporation and congelation. But during the gla- 
cial epochs the tendency of indefinite glacier accumula- 
tion is apparent.* Therefore they did not accumulate 
as glaciers do now ! This is the great enigma that puz- 
zles so many. 

It is the privilege of the annular theory to make 
this plain. ISTow it must be admitted that every drop 
of the terrestrial waters has fallen to the earth from 
tellurio-cosmic space ! and more largely than otherwise 
these have fallen in polar regions ! All that is needed 
for men to understand this is first to abandon the un- 
reasonable and unnatural claim that these waters all 
fell to the earth in archsean and pre-glacial times; and 
admit the purely philosophic and natural fall of the 
same from over-canopying belts spreading and moving 
through the ages with a step as sure as the movement 

* We have but to read such works as Agas^iz's " Geological 
Sketches " to understand the immensity of the ice field that 
moved over the Northern Hemisphere during the great ice age. 
Glaciers accumulated in the St. Lawrence Valley several thousand 
feet thick. In their limitless sweep they towered over the New 
England Mountains, scoring and planing their rocky sides six 
thousand feet above the ocean. I have seen their tracks indelibly 
chiseled 1,500 feet above glaciated valleys in the Blue Ridge. The 
same glacier that was urged up the St. Lawrence Valley no doubt 
filled the basin of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. 




Fig. 7. ASTEKIE, OR STARRY ISLE. 
Td (T utTToa yjv. dnyd; //^v OoAotidcb^ v^syOT^'^a:. — Diogrnes Laertius. 



1 have here illustrated Tvh at must be more fully explained in another volume,— the vaulted 
enclosures of the northern skj-, the last form of every falling vrorld-beU. The Greek quotation 
here taken from the writings of Diogenes Laertius is the " ]\roabite Stone " of th:s problem, and 
though translated variously, it simply tells us that the '^Arctic stars once rnvolced in n Ihohs." 
Now a tholos is a vaulted enclosure— a space enclosed by an arched roof or dome. The author 
I have here quoted tells us that this was the doctrine of the earliest astronomers, and cites 
Anaxagoras as its advocate. But it matters not who first said thatjhe " archaic stars revolved 
(or dwelt) in a dome-shaped chamber." It affirms that the stars spoken of were north polar 
stars, for as surely as the earth had a canopy, as I have proved, man saw the stars first in a 
dime-shnped enclosure, and they were called " archa'c stars" because they were seen aaioug these 
polar arches, not because they were ancient stars. 



The Glacial Epochs. 175 

of worlds, toward the poles, where they descended as 
mighty and terrific down-rushes of snow. Men may call 
this the Vailian theory, or by whatever name they 
choose, but it must stand the test of law through all 
time, because: 

First: It is natural, and it cannot be denied that the 
oceans now on the earth reached its surface as snow, 
at least to a great extent. 

Second: It is evidently the only natural means by 
which great polar ice-caps could accumulate more rap- 
idly than they could move or flow toward the seas, by 
means of which the earth became filled with snows and 
the continents ground and pulverized into mud.. 

Third: It is the only means by which great snow- 
fields could suddenly entomb a living world, which, as 
arctic lands demonstrate beyond a doubt, has taken 
place. 

Fourth: It is the only competent means of explain- 
ing the presence of carbonite in great layers between 
strata of ice and snow, as seen in polar lands. 



I have given sufficient reasons in foregoing chapters 
for advancing the claim that the oceans in great part 
fell at the poles as snow. I will certainly be allowed 
to make this claim at this stage of the investigation, 
considering the cumulative evidence pointing to the 
annular system in the whole line of discussion in the 
preceding pages. But let us now examine the ipse dixit 
of the polar worlds themselves. 

Were we to turn our gaze upon the mighty wall of 
ice on the antarctic continent; washed in its grand cir- 
cuit by the waves of the Southern Ocean, we would no 



IT 6 The Earths Annular System. 

longer doubt that such a mass of snows came upon that 
land from beyond the atmosphere. From what can be 
determined from discoveries by Ross and Wilkes, the 
imaginary '^Antarctic Continent " is one mighty field 
of glacier ice, nearly 2,000 miles across. In many 
places where the glacier is washed by the ocean, it rises 
perpendicularly to enormous height, and extends below 
the surface of the sea to an unknown depth. It is an 
ice continent beyond the reach of snow-falls from vapor 
congelation. The vapors from warmer seas fall long 
before they reach this ice-field; and exist as impenetra- 
ble and almost perpetual fogs in latitude about 65° to 
70° south. 

Captain Foster, of the Chanticleer, spent several 
months at Deception Island, in latitude 65° south, and 
he particularly refers to this region of fogs. Thougk 
in the middle of summer, the air was so intensely cold 
and raw that some of his companions who had previous- 
ly wintered in the arctic seas, declared they did not 
suffer more there than they did in the Southern Ocean. 
The fogs were so thick and frequent that for nearly two 
weeks neither the sun nor the stars could be seen. Here, 
on islands where almost continual fogs are encountered, 
glaciers might accumulate. These fogs are met with 
by all who sail over these waters, and are referred to 
by many voyagers on account of their prevalence. Here, 
it seems, in the circle of air between the line of eternal 
frost, and that of aqueous vaporization, the frozen 
vapors descend, as we would reasonably expect. I 
think it was Lieutenant Maury who reasoned from this 
fact, that aqueous vapors raised in warm parts of the 
earth never reached the polar world, but descended in. 
the temperate zones. From what source, then, came 



The Glacial Epochs. 177 

this mighty casement of ice ? Since it is unreasonable 
to suppose it came from warmer latitudes, since par- 
ticles of redundant aqueous vapor must fall, before the 
temperature of the atmosphere is reduced to that of the 
average in the polar worlds, it must be a mere accident 
that snow-storms ever occur in extreme polar latitudes. 
When sledge-tracks were seen by Dr. Kane nearly 20 
degrees from the pole, though several years had elapsed 
since they had been made ; when the bleaching skeletons 
of unfortunate explorers, articles of clothing, etc., are 
found uncovered in arctic snow, where it is possible 
snows might occur; when the bones of mammals such 
as the musk-ox remain for years exposed to view, as seen 
by arctic explorers, it seems indeed reasonable that 
snows seldom fall in the extreme polar worlds. How, 
then, did these boundless reaches of snow and ice accu- 
mulate ? 

Again, since it is well known and now generally ad- 
mitted by geologists that glaciers did increase and ac- 
cumulate, so that whole continents w^ere covered by 
them; since there is no doubt that the arctic snows 
so gained upon glacier motion and decrease, as to push 
a stupendous field of ice through British America to 
its southern highlands, and then over these highlands 
into the basin of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence 
Valley, thus glaciating a great part of the ^N'orth Ameri- 
can Continent; and since such gains cannot take place 
except by and through sudden increase of precipitation, 
no more than a river could overflow its banks except 
by and through sudden precipitation; and since the 
great ice-flood was almost limitless in extent and in its 
effect, we are forced to admit that the source of the 
snows that formed it and forced it forward in its deso- 



178 Tlie EarWs Annular System. 

lating marcli, was equally boundless, and the fall com-- 
paratively sudden and far-reaching. But such a source 
manifestly did not exist upon the earth. It seems to me 
as vivid as the noon-day sun, that if this earth had never 
been a molten mass, it would never have been carved 
by this mighty plow of the gods. For no such world of 
snows could have been formed. 

And now, as we begin to examine the means by which 
the arctic glaciers were made the winding and burial 
sheet of an animated world, I would I could impress 
the reader with the majestic grandeur of the field be- 
fore us. More than three-quarters of a century have 
passed away since by mere accident it was discovered 
that animals of a pre-historic period were entombed 
beneath and in the frozen soil and snows adjacent to the 
Arctic Ocean. Since the beginning of the present 
century, vast numbers of these animals, mostly entire, 
and remarkably well preserved, have been found, so 
that it is now a well-authenticated fact, that lands im- 
mediately under the arctic circle are to-day great 
charnel-houses of the interdiluvian dead. For a long 
time an extensive trade in ivory, dug from the frozen 
soil, was carried on by the Russian and Siberian trad- 
ers, and it is still one of the staple objects of commerce 
in some parts of the frozen north. 

An interesting account of some remarkable discov- 
eries in this direction may be here introduced. The 
following is transcribed from the Penny Cyclopaedia, 
Vol. IX., article Elephas: 

^^ Mammoth bones and tusks occur throughout Russia 
and jnore particularly in Eastern Siberia, and in the 
arctic marshes. The tusks are very numerous, and in 
so high a state of preservation that they form an arti- 



The Glacial Epochs. 179 

cle of commerce, and are used in the same works, as 
what may be termed the living ivory of Asia and 
Africa. . . . Siberian fossil ivory forms the principal 
material on which the Russian ivory-turner works. 
The tusks most abound in the islands and shores of the 
frozen sea; and the best are found in the countries near 
the arctic circle; and in the most eastern regions, 
where the soil in the very short summer is thawed only 
at the surface, and some years not at all. ... In 
1799, a Tungusian, named Schumachoff, went to seek 
mammoth tusks near the mouth of the Lena. One day 
he saw among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but 
did not then discover what it was. In 1800 he per- 
ceived it was more disengaged, and in 1801 the entire 
side of the animal, and one of its tusks, were quite free 
from the ice. The summer of 1802 was cold, but in 
1803 part of the ice between the earth and the mam- 
moth, for such was the object, having melted away more 
rapidly than the rest, the enormous mass fell by its own 
weight on a bank of sand. In 1804 Schumachoff came 
to his mammoth, cut off his tusks and exchanged them 
with a merchant for goods of the value of 50 rubles 
(about $38.00). 

^' We shall now let Mr. Adams, from whose account 
the above is abridged, speak for himself: ' Seven years 
after the discovery of the mammoth I fortunately vis- 
ited those distant and desert regions, and I congratulate 
myself on being able to prove a fact which appeared so 
improbable. I found the mammoth still in the same 
place, altogether mutilated. The Jukutski had cut off 
the flesh, with which they fed their dogs, during the 
scarcity. Wild beasts, such as white bears, wolves, wol- 



180 The Earth's Annular System. 

vermes and foxes, fed -upon it, and the traces of their 
footsteps were seen aronnd. 

" * The skeleton, almost entirely cleared of its flesh, 
remained whole except one fore-leg. The spine from the 
head to the os coccygis, one scapula, the basin and the 
other three extremities, were still held together by liga- 
ments, and parts of the skin. The head was covered 
with a dry skin; and one of the ears well-preserved was 
furnished with a tuft of hairs. All these parts have 
necessarily been injured by 7,330 miles of transporta- 
tion, yet the eyes have been preserved, and the pupil 
of the eye can still be distinguished. This mammoth 
was a male with a long mane. . . . The skin, of which 
I possess three-fourths, is of a dark gray color, cov- 
ered with reddish and black hairs. The carcass, of 
which I collected the bones, is 9 feet, 4 inches high, 
and 16 feet, 4 inches long. The tusks (afterwards re- 
covered) were 9 feet, 6 inches long, and weighed to- 
gether 360 pounds. The head alone weighs 414: pounds. 
The skin was so heavy that ten persons found great 
difficulty in transporting it to the shore. I collected 
36 pounds of hair trampled in the sand, by bears, etc' 
This traveler goes on to state that the escarpment in 
which the animal was found, was more than 200 feet 
high, and made of pure, clean ice, and adds: ' Curiosity 
led me to ascend two other escarpments of the same 
material (ice), where I found in the hollows great quan- 
tities of mammoth tushs, etc., of astonishing freshness. 
How these things could become collected there is a ques- 
tion as curious as it is difficult to solve.' " (Italics 
mine.) 

From my notes taken at the time the above was 
copied, I learn that this mammoth, while imbedded in 



The Glacial Epochs. 181 

the escarpment of ice, was 40 feet above the surface of 
the earth. Horses that have fallen in the crevasses of 
the Alpine glaciers, and remained hidden for many 
years, have finally made their appearance upon the sur- 
face of the ice. From this it appears that there is a 
tendency in the glacier to eject such remains. 

A German traveler, named Erman, many years ago, 
visited the northern coast of Siberia, and has given 
some valuable information respecting that perpetually 
frozen land. In the summer-time the soil is thawed 
for a very few inches below the surface. I think it was 
he that refers to a well, sunk in the vicinity of Yakutsk 
more than a hundred feet through frozen mud and ice. 
In a great many places along the Siberian coast are 
huge ice-hills from 100 to 300 feet high, made up of 
alternating beds of ice, frozen mud, sand and carbonite, 
by some called peat. Imbedded in these masses are 
found vast quantities of mammalian remains, valuable 
for the immense amount of ivory they yield. The 
islands along the coast are apparently composed of these 
frozen fossils in a matrix of mud and ice. The island 
of E"ew Siberia, more than a hundred miles long and 
thirty broad, seems to have been literally built of these 
materials, and whole cargoes of elephantine ivory are 
annually dug from their frozen hills. 

Almost the whole territory of Alaska, so far as 
known, is covered with evident glacial deposits, and in 
many places mingled with abundant mammoth remains. 
In Kotzebue Sound, rise hills of considerable size, com- 
posed of ice of great thickness above the water, and ex- 
tending below its surface to an unknown depth. On 
the top of this glacier ice, and covered with carbonite 
and mud surmounted with snow and ice, are found 



188 The Earth's Annular System, 

mammoth bones and tnsks of remarkable freshness. In 
Europe, on the northern coast, these bones have been 
found in the same kind of deposits. 'Now as the ten- 
dency of all these northern drift deposits is to move 
from the north, southward, it is evident that the arctic 
lands, near and about the poles, previous to the last 
glacial epoch, was as much the land of the living as it is 
now of the dead. But before I draw any definite con- 
clusion as to the origin and cause of this great catas- 
trophe, we will still further examine into the nature 
and character of these remains. 

Sir Charles Lyell says : " In 1772, Pallas obtained 
from Wiljuiskoi in latitude 64°, from the banks of the 
Wiljui, a tributary of the Lena, the carcass of a rhin- 
oceros taken from the sand in which it must have re- 
mained congealed for ages, the soil of that region being 
always frozen to within a slight depth of the surface. 
This carcass, which was compared to a ^ natural 
mummy,' emitted an odor like putrid flesh, part of the 
skin being still covered with short, crisp wool, and with 
black and grey hairs." Professor Brandt, of St. Pe- 
tersburg, under whose care the above remarkable fos- 
sil has been made to speak to a modern world, says: 
^^ I have been so fortunate as to extract from the cavi- 
ties in the molar teeth of the Wiljui rhinoceros, a small 
quantity of its half-chewed food, among which frag- 
ments of pine leaves, one-half the seed of a polygona- 
ceous plant, and very minute portions of wood with por- 
ous cells, were still recognizable. . . . The blood ves- 
sels discovered in the head, appeared filled with coagu- 
lated blood, which in many places showed its red color.'' 

Thus if we were cut ofi from every other source of 
information as to the character of this animal's habitat. 



The Glacial Epochs. 183 

this simple accidental circumstance of finding a part 
of a cotyledon of a plant in the hollow tooth affords 
evidence the most positive, and conclusive, that the race 
of extinct quadrupeds, represented by these frozen and 
mummied mammals, in the far north, not only was ab- 
ruptly and suddenly overwhelmed by some mighty and 
immeasurable revolution of the forces of nature; but 
it also shows on what kind of food the animal fed, on 
the very day it was entombed, and that it was frozen up 
on the self -same day, and remained in that condition, as 
it were, in winter's eternal midnight, until found and 
dragged from its icy matrix. " In its stomach were 
found undigested fragments of coniferous wood," and 
therefore eaten a few hours, at most, before it was 
locked up in its wintry prison. Seeds undigested and 
so little changed as to tell plainly what kind of vege- 
tation grew in the land where the animal lived and died, 
have frequently been found in the stomachs of these 
mammoths thus imbedded in ice and mud. " Even the 
capillary blood vessels,'' still retaining their contents, 
show that there was not the slightest decomposition in 
the body ; all of which force upon us the conclusion that 
sudden and complete was the destruction that involved 
this wondrous race of pachyderms. 

In the year 1843 Middendorf, of Kussia, found sev- 
eral carcasses of these extinct animals, some of them 
remarkably well preserved. From one, the bulb of the 
eye was secured, and is now preserved in the Museum 
at Moscow. Among these remains were found marine 
fossils of northern species, characteristic of the northern 
drift, which shows that both were likely carried to- 
gether from the north, in arctic glaciers. In the year 
1866 many mammoths were found on the arctic coasts 



181 The Earth's Annular System. 

of Siberia, most of which still retained the skin and 
hair. They have also been found floating in icebergs 
out upon the open sea. One instance of this is related 
by Kotzebue, who was an indefatigable worker among 
the frozen seas. 

By what natural means were these animals entombed ? 
I trust this mysterious problem is approaching a philo- 
sophic solution. Lyell, from whom I have drawn 
largely in this chapter, looking back upon this great 
charnel-house of the mammoth, is forced to the conclu- 
sion that " the ice, or congealed mud, in which the bod- 
ies of such quadrupeds were enyeloped, has never once 
been melted since the day they perished, so as to allow 
the free percolation of water through the matrix; for, 
had this been the case, the soft parts of the animals 
could not have remained undecomposed." This con- 
clusion is arrived at by pure logic, and I cannot see how 
any man can avoid it. But what agency on earth, or in 
the heavens, known to man, could have thus involved 
them suddenly in ice and frozen mud, and kept them 
thus entombed unto this day? It is plain that a rise 
and rush of water over their forage ground is utterly 
inadequate to account for the facts. Consequently, a 
sudden tilting of the earth's polar axis, by which, as 
some scientists have supposed, the oceans of the South- 
ern Hemisphere have been transferred to the ^Northern, 
also fails to explain the phenomena. The change of 
climate was sudden. In one day the animated races of 
the arctic zone, then supporting a luxuriant vegetation, 
were gathered down to the grave. Even if a transfer 
of oceanic waters could take place, this could not have 
changed the climate as by a stroke, and have congealed 
and sealed the land in ice; and no theory that does not 



The Glacial Epochs. 185 

agree with immediate and sudden change of climate, — 
that locked the mammoth in " pure, clear, glacier ice/' 
without rush of waters and transportation of sand or 
mud, — can be accepted, as all debacles of urging floods 
leave the principal features unexplained. 

Listen to the emphatic declaration of Cuvier: "If 
they had not been frozen up as soon as killed they must 
quickly have decomposed by putrefaction. '^ Again let 
me call the attention of niy readers to the remarks of 
this illustrious man, in contemplating the physical 
change the earth underwent, — by means of which per- 
petual winter involved the polar world. " But this 
eternal frost could not have taken possession of the 
region which these animals inhabited except by the 
same cause which destroyed them." A physical truth, 
more profound, and more in harmony with the annular 
theory could not be uttered. The same mighty down- 
rush of snows, from the earth's annular system, was 
the " eternal frost '' that took " possession of the region 
which these animals inhabited," and, of course, was the 
" cause which destroyed them." Those tellurio-cosmic 
snows took possession of the whole polar world. 

Having shown how necessary it is to admit ,that the 
cause was such as to produce immediate death and im- 
mediate refrigeration, let me ask the reader to find, if 
possible, any other competent cause than such a fall of 
snows. ]^ow let us see how natural and how neces- 
sary such a snowfall is, and how admirably it accords 
with facts. The question to be determined is: What 
cause, suddenly and immediately, destroyed the mam- 
moth and his congeners, and froze them up in glacier 
ice, and kept them there till released by solar heat ? 

Is this proposition too exclusive? Since many of 



186 The Earth's Annular System. 

these animals are really found in glacier ice " pure and 
clear; " since they have been found in icebergs in the 
open sea, and since an iceberg is a fragment of glacier 
ice; since those which are found imbedded in mud on 
the plains of Siberia, have evidently been dropped from 
icebergs, when that land was under the sea, — for mar- 
ine arctic fossils are sometimes found with them (and 
if even one be found having these associations, it is 
strong evidence that all found in that region were once 
frozen in glacier ice, and floated thither in icebergs 
and dropped on the floor of the sea, among the living 
and dead fauna of the deep), — since the same may be 
said of the Alaskan remains; since it is well-known that 
these remains are fresher and newer near the polar sea, 
and must therefore have been released from the glacier 
in more recent times; and since, if they had been 
originally buried in the mud, without being trans- 
ported, they must have been ground up by the great 
continental glacier; and that so many of them are en- 
tire, and well preserved even in the mud; and, finally, 
since their remains are yet being found in the glaciers 
on the Siberian coast, and frequently dredged up from 
the bottom of the ocean* whither they must have fallen 
from icebergs ; we shall hardly escape from the conclu- 
sion that the mammalians now found fossil in frozen 
mud in the polar world or near it, were originally a part 
and parcel of the mighty moving glacier; and that as 
the last remnant of that glacier, the present ice-cap of 
the arctic world is still moving southward and down- 
ward and giving up its " mighty dead.'' 

As we stand with this great problem before us, in 
the light of the annular theory every shadow disappears. 

* Geikie's " Great Ice Age," page 300. 



The Glacial Epochs. 187 

We see the mammoth frozen up in a glacier, and we 
know that that glacier was originally snow; and we also 
know he was frozen up in that mass, in the land in 
which he lived, immediately after he died; or, that he 
perished in his grave of snow, and has ever since re- 
mained there. Then it was snow that embedded him in 
ice. That is, a fall of snow was the " cause that de- 
stroyed him " — i.e., was the " eternal frost that took 
possession of the region." !N'ow, is there any possibil- 
ity of escaping this conclusion ? They are imbedded in 
ice that once was snow, and there they have remained 
from the day they fed on polygonaceous plants in that 
region. Then all that remains for us to do is to find a 
source of snow competent to supply it in sufficient quan- 
tities. 

Since we know that every drop of the terrestrial 
waters must have come from the earth's annular sys- 
tem at some age of the world, and since there can be no 
doubt that some of those waters fell upon the earth in 
early historic times, and since it must be admitted that 
they fell largely as snow in the polar regions; and since, 
if not more than one-tenth of the waters now on the 
earth had fallen in the form of snow it would have cov- 
ered the entire land-surface more than 30,000 feet 
deep; and since it can scarcely be possible that one-tenth 
of the oceanic waters did not fall in polar lands, as 
snow; the annular system comes boldly forth as a com- 
petent source of the snows that entombed the mam- 
moth and his compeers. And when we see we are 
forced to find a source not only for a vast amount, but 
also one capable of affording it so suddenly and so rapid- 
ly as to suddenly change the climate and involve the 



188 The Earth's Annular System. 

land in death, we may emphatically declare that that 
source is the only one that can be found! 

Imagine, then, those giant quadrupeds feeding in 
their natural habitat, until on a certain day, in autumn 
of the year, when seeds were ripe, the over-canopying 
belt of snows, having been approaching for ages that 
point where it is no longer moored to the skies, poised 
for a space in equilibrio, begins its downward course on 
the fated earth. In a moment's time a land that was 
rich and fat with life, — a world apparently launched 
in perfection from tTie hand of the Great Architect, — ■ 
is chilled with eternal snow and frost. Inch by inch, 
foot by foot, and yard by yard, the snows fill the plains, 
fill the forests, fill the valleys, and chill the seas. Yes- 
terday a world pregnant with exuberant life; to-day 
rocked with the mightiest revulsion, wrecked in the 
shock of ruin and disorder and discord, then wrapped in 
the white pall of universal death. 

There may be some minor mysteries involved in the 
peculiar distribution of these animal remains in some 
parts of the drift, which at first sight will appear irre- 
concilable to the theory here advanced. These will 
vanish as the theory in its almost boundless conception 
is understood by scientists. I have no space in this 
volume to consider these in detail, and a brief consid- 
eration of them would be unsatisfactory to the general 
reader. 

Having therefore taken the same position that intel- 
ligent geologists of all schools have adopted, and must 
stand to, viz., that the great catastrophe which over- 
whelmed the antediluvian animals at the poles and en- 
cased them in their icy tomb, was a sudden one; and 
that the same material that entombed them was the 



The Glacial Epochs. 189 

" cause or agent of their destruction," as Cuvier de- 
clares ; if we follow this line of thought to its legitimate 
conclusion we are finally brought face to face with 
tellurio-cosmic falls of snow. For the material that 
entombed them is ice — glacier ice — and this was 
originally snow ! And it was snow that fell upon the 
animated earth, and froze it up. But such a fall of 
snows could not possibly have accumulated in the at- 
mosphere as it now does, and have fallen therefrom! 
Therefore it must have come from a source lying be- 
yond the atmosphere. But beyond the atmosphere 
were the " waters above the firmament," recognized by 
primeval man. This recognition has been transmitted 
to us by tradition and mythology in such a way as to 
prove that a part, — the last remnant — of those waters, 
or rather vapors, fell upon the earth after man came 
upon the scene; fell too at that time as snows at the 
poles, and as a flood of water in warmer latitudes. But 
if water existed beyond the region of atmospheric 
clouds during that early historic period, or prehistoric 
period, if we choose to call it, then we know they were 
there in the mammalian age. That is, we know that 
while the mammoth fed on arctic vegetation there was 
a mighty over-arching fund of vapors, either frozen or 
otherwise, revolving around the earth, — a mass of 
vapors competent to involve the earth in ruin. What 
has become of those vapors ? They are not there now; 
and the oceans are on the earth, and they stand deeper 
to-day, the world round, than they did before the last 
glacial epoch. If we deny the existence of this great 
abyss of snows and waters, so frequently referred to in 
the oldest documents and legends of man, we plant 
ourselves as opposed to law, and we will forever grope 



190 The Earth's Annular System. 

in darkness, and never find the true cause of the extinc- 
tion of the prototypes of mammalian races, including 
pre-glacial, and, it may be, an inter-glacial race of men. 
On the other hand, as this investigation shows, if we 
admit the former existence of rings and belts of tellurio- 
cosmic matter which law requires, a thousand dark 
things are illuminated that otherwise meet vdth unsat- 
isfactory explanation, or are wholly left in the night. 

We may add strength to our position by other evi- 
dence. It is more than probable that if the mammoth 
was destroyed by a downfall of such snows as is here 
claimed, that previous to its fall, as in all former cases, 
— as in the case of the E'oachian deluge, for instance, — 
the over-canopying fund of vapors acted as a mighty 
robe to the earth, keeping out the cold of space and 
confining terrestrial warmth, as well as equally distrib- 
uting the solar heat over the globe. This equalization 
of temperature, as in a mighty greenhouse, would 
melt away all existing glaciers and clothe the earth in 
verdure to the very poles. Let us not cast this concep- 
tion aside without reason. It is plain that the solar 
beam of heat could reach the earth in a modified degree 
only, and earth would bloom as under a glass roof col- 
ored to prevent excessive light. 

!N^ow it would seem scarcely necessary for me to pro- 
duce evidence to prove that the earth during the mam- 
malian period did enjoy a greenhouse climate. The 
mere fact that these huge quadrupeds lived in arctic re- 
gions in vast numbers is proof that such masses of ice 
and snow as now are there were not there then. The 
mere fact that those animals were larger than their 
representatives of this age shows that they lived in a 
different atmospheric environment, — that the atmos- 



i 



The Glacial Epochs. 191 

phere was heavier, possessing more buoyant power by 
the mere pressure and presence of a vast ocean of vapors 
in its higher regions. But the ordinary reader may 
need something more than mere reference to these 
things. I will therefore briefly refer to some direct 
evidence. 

Wherever we are able to find marine shells imbedded 
in the clays and other formations immediately below 
the glacial deposits they are known to be the repre- 
sentatives of warmer waters, proving that warmer seas 
then occupied these northern lands. The presence of 
tropical and sub-tropical animal fossils in what are 
termed pre-glacial formations, representatives of those 
now occupying the warm regions of Asia, Africa and 
America, shows that animals of the tropics migrated 
to the far north. Among the frozen cliffs of Siberia 
and Alaska are buried products of a vegetation of a 
-warmer world. All these evidences exist in the super- 
ficial formations of Great Britain and Europe, as well 
as iJ^orth America. "^^ They are the index finger of time, 
pointing to a period of sub-tropical warmth in lands 
sleeping in eternal snows. But this is the very condi- 
tion of climate needed to harmonize with the annular 
theory, and I take it as one more link in the great chain 
of evidence. 

E'ow, as we have here laid before the reader a com- 
petent, and, without doubt, the true cause or source of 
the snows that overwhelmed the mammoth and his co- 
temporaries, have we not also in the annular system 
a true cause and competent source of all the glacial 
epochs the world has ever known? This warm period 

• See Geikie's " Great Ice Age," and any of the geological re- 
ports on the surveys of the States. 



192 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

immediately preceding excessive refrigeration can be 
no accidental intervention. It was the product and re- 
sult of eternal law. We find it, as previously intimated, 
again and again taking its place in its own proper order, 
in the harmonious gradation so conspicuous in the 
geologic column; and anyone must see that each repeti- 
tion of it must add new strength to the edifice we are 
building. 

But it is evident that other conditions must follow, 
which are so related, and dependent upon these stated 
previous conditions (as a warm climate followed by re- 
frigeration), that we must attempt to hunt them up. 
I have shown that the natural associate of a downfall 
of snows from on high was a subsequent down-rush of 
water in medial, or extra-tropical latitudes. Xow if 
we find in the record before us that immediately suc- 
ceeding the great fall of the mammalian snows there 
followed a vast down-rush of devouring floods, the 
philosophic reader v/ill not fail to see that the natural 
network of evidence is growing stronger and stronger, 
and wider and wider at each step. In the chapter on 
*' Geological Topographical Evidence,'' the reader will 
find in addition to the evidence I now present the most 
overwhelming testimony naturally pointing to such 
correlative conditions. 

I will first point the reader to the manifest evidence 
contained in what are known as the modified drifts 
along the valleys of the world. I say valleys of the 
world, for they are not confined to glaciated districts. 
Says Dana * : " The fact that such a fiood, vast beyond 
conception, was the final event in the history of the 
glacier, is manifest in the peculiar stratification of the 

* Dana's " Manual," pages 552 and 553. 



Tlie Glacial Epochs. 193 

flood-made deposits, and in the spread of the stratified 
drift southward along the Mississippi Valley to the 
Gulf, as first made known by Hilgard. Only under the 
rapid contribution of an immense amount of sand and 
gravel and of water from so unlimited a source could 
such deposits have accumulated.'' Again, ^' we learn 
that the region of the Great Lakes was probably one 
immense lake, and that the waters spread far south over 
the States. . . . The Mississippi waters, in the Cham- 
plain era, below the mouth of the Ohio, had an average 
breadth of fifty miles, and along by Tennessee and 
iN'orthern Mississippi of seventy-five miles; so that it 
was indeed a great stream.'' This vast flood is supposed 
by Dana to have resulted from the rapid melting of the 
great expanse of glaciers ; and he cites the spring floods 
of this age caused by the melting snows. But the 
melting of snows and glacier ice afford no similarity. 
Even spring floods are the productions of rains, as any 
one ought to know, upon fields of snow and ice, though 
the latter by its melting necessarily augmented the 
flood; yet it is known that the very presence of ice in 
the streams of a river system is a great safeguard to a 
more sudden rise of rushing floods. By it the flood ia 
prolonged and modified in degree, and the presence of 
a continental glacier would not only check the natural 
or ordinary rainfall, but its melting, while it would 
vastly extend the duration of a flood, must have been 
slow indeed were it not for excessive rains. But 
imagine a rainy season over the surface of the ice flelds 
of the present polar world ! Imagine, if you can, majes- 
tic and sweeping floods occasioned by the melting of 
arctic glaciers. It is neither reasonable nor natural 
that the great ice sheet of the !N"orthern Hemisphere 



194 The Earth's Annular System. 

should melt so rapidly as to fill all the tens of thousands 
of valleys radiating from it over the continents south- 
ward. And to suppose that such melting was greatly 
aided by ordinary rains is also unnatural, so that it 
seems evident that a flood in a glacial age requires a 
rain from a super-aerial source, and such a fall of waters 
must have been sudden and terrific. Besides, the very 
condition of the stratified superficial beds shows that 
the flood came and passed away before the glacier had 
nearly subsided. " There is direct evidence that the 
flood reached a maximum just before the close of the 
melting." * 'Now it must be plain that if this flood was 
occasioned solely by melting glaciers, unaided by de- 
scending waters, this fact could not be determined. 
The change in the deposits would be so gradual that no 
definite point of change could be readily determined. 
** The transition was a sudden one, as the abrupt tran- 
sitions in the beds prove." * The same evidence may- 
be gathered from other continents, — from almost every 
valley in the north temperate zone the testimony is 
the same.f So that it is not necessary to burden the 
reader with a detail of facts when he must see that the 
evidence is conclusive that before the close of the last 
great age of ice the !N'orthern Hemisphere was swept by 
a stupendous deluge of waters, strongly pointing to 
the source heretofore named. Those upper waters, 
even though they may have been in the form of vapor 

* Dana's " Manual," page 554. 

1 1 might largely quote from European authors in confirmation 
of this. I will refer the reader to the twenty-ninth chapter of 
Geikie's " Great lee Age " for an exhaustive treatise upon this 
feature of post-glacial beds ; also to Sir J. Lubbock's " Prehistoric 
Times," and fourth volume, page 305 et seq. of the Trans. GeoL 
Sec. Also Dana's "Manual," page 556. 



The Glacial Epochs. 195 

in a greatly attenuated state, possessed the power of 
absorbing and diffusing the solar heat, and their very 
presence in the atmosphere in medial latitudes must 
have largely assisted in melting the ice, and perhaps 
for unknown centuries the falling waters and the melt- 
ing glaciers deluged the land. But putting aside all 
other questions we see that the converging testimony 
of the continents is that an epoch of stupendous cat- 
aclysms of water followed immediately the epoch of 
down-rushing and all-involving snows, — the very thing 
the annular theory demands. 

But there is one lacking feature that we must now 
refer to. It will be shown in another chapter how 
necessary it is that all such downfalls of water and 
snows when they have receded to the ocean and found 
their own natural level, must finally result in continen- 
tal upheaval and mountain-making. Let us see whether 
this expected sequence follows in order. Suppose this 
triplicity of changes cannot in this case be established ! 
Then it must be seen that the annular theory shall have 
met with a defeat. But if it be found without a doubt 
that the continents or even a part of them were lifted, 
attended or not attended with visible plication, I will 
certainly be permitted to take it as evidence corrobora- 
tive of the views heretofore defined. 

Let us first examine the coast of our own country, 
for bordering the oceans must the evidence be found, 
if found anywhere. In a great many places around the 
coast of E'orth America we find terraces of the Cham- 
plain period that must have been formed in the sea, 
for the reason that marine fossils are contained in them. 
At San Pedro they are now from 60 to 80 feet above 
the ocean, showing that the coast has arisen more than 



196 The Earth's Annular System, 

to that height since they were formed. They stand as 
conspicuous way-marks on the Pacific Coast. Also in 
the neighborhood of San Francisco there are many 
shell-bearing formations of this period more than 70 
feet above the tide. Still further south, on the Mexican 
Coast, they rise almost to an equal height. There is 
but little doubt that an examination of the Pacific 
Coast will reveal many such beds between Oregon and 
Alaska. The eastern coast, however, north of Cape 
Cod, presents the most remarkable evidence of eleva- 
tion in the quaternary at the close of the glacial 
period. It would require much space to specify all 
points. We will therefore epitomize from Dana,* who 
condenses from a vast field as follows: "The elevated 
sea-border formations that have been described prove 
that in the Champlain period the land where such for- 
mations occur was at the water's leveV (Italics mine.) 
From a critical examination of these beds by many 
competent geologists, from Lyell down, there can be no 
doubt that the l^ew England mountains were elevated, 
immediately after the Champlain flood-beds were de- 
posited, to the extent of 450 or 500 feet. The same 
authority says in another connection: " We hence learn 
that in the Champlain era salt waters spread over a 
large coast region of Maine, and up the St. Lawrence 
nearly to Lake Ontario.'' The sea was 500 feet deep 
at Montreal. The remains of whales and seals have 
been found in the St. Lawrence Valley,' and a part of 
the skeleton of a whale was dug from the soil 60 feet 
above Lake Champlain. From these it is demonstrated 
that some portion of ^North America was elevated, and 
that mountain-making was a part of the work of the 

^' Dana's " Manual on the Quaternary." 



The Glacial Epochs. 197 

Champlain period, which immediately followed the 
great flood of the glacial period. 

Turning our attention to the Old World we find the 
same unmistakable evidence there. Around the Brit- 
ish coast, and the shores of Norway and Sweden, there 
has been a general elevation of the land from 300 to 
500 feet. Geikie, after reviewing the testimony 
afforded by an immense number of shell-bearing ter- 
races in the various regions, summarizes as follows; 
" During the deposition of the clays and sands with 
arctic shells, the land, as we have seen, stood relatively 
at a lower level. . . . The sea continuing to retire, the 
British Islands became at last united to the continent."* 

Thus it appears that men who stand highest in au- 
thority on these especial subjects, without any particu- 
lar theory to champion, have laid, as it were, the cap- 
ping-stone demanded by the annular hypothesis. Its 
first demand was that there should be among the last 
of terrestrial revolutions a mighty down-rush of snows 
upon a tropical or sub-tropical world. It came, and it 
came, too, upon a world of life and bloom! But this 
demanded its associated downfall of water from the 
super-aerial ^' deep,'' and its demands were responded to 
through the open flood-gates of the skies. But these re- 
quired that the foundations of the continents should 
respond to the measureless increase of energy exerted 
by additional oceanic pressure, through the evolution 
of heat and rock-expansion, — a response, a force which 
neither mountain height nor breadth of continents 
could withstand. Earth trembled at the demand, and 
the mountains lifted their heads to loftier heights. 
What theory heretofore advanced has explained these 

* " Great Ice Age," pages 321 and 322. 



198 The Earth's Annular System, 

things ? When we see that the co-linking of these great 
changes necessarily requires an explanation not only of 
the wondrous changes themselves, but that it also de- 
mands a theory that accounts for the marvelous order 
in which they have transpired; — for the cause of this 
co-linking ; — when we see the earth during a vast period 
of time characterized by a warm climate and a vigorous 
vegetation, just previous to refrigeration, precisely as 
in the Adamite period, and know that the latter was, 
with scarcely a doubt, caused by super-aerial vapors 
spreading from the equator to the poles ; when we know 
that a spreading thus of vapors, while at the very time 
it must force a warm climate upon the earth, is but an 
inevitable preparation for a down-rush of snows, we can 
readily understand the reason of this order. And 
when we see the far-reaching and sudden result in the 
extermination of specific forms, in mountain making, in 
the advent of new forms; when we see this exhaustless 
energy used in upheaval, always directed against the 
continents from the ocean-world, we are forced to ad- 
mit that some portions of the ocean's bed have been 
forced deeper into its plastic foundation by increased 
pressure, — the very thing the spreading and declining 
of annular matter must have effected. 

Then, again, as we see this annular matter remain- 
ing in the firmament, and becoming the primary cause 
of the warm period of the Eden world, and the decline 
of that matter the cause of its destruction, it requires 
no strain of reason to claim that all such changes have 
had the same all-competent cause. l^Tow the fact that 
such vapors did remain on high until the time of the 
historic deluge, and produced that deluge, warrants the 
conclusion that the post-glacial floods had the same an- 



The Glacial Epochs, 199 

nular origin. And as it is utterly unreasonable and 
unphilosophic to claim that the melting of great con- 
tinental glaciers could form floods " vast beyond con- 
ception/' unless succeeding canopies of annular matter 
forced a tropic temperature upon the frozen world, and 
as that matter was present in and beyond the firmament 
till the J^oachian flood, the very means necessary to 
force such temperature existed at the very time that 
earth was wrapped in a mantle of snows and ice, and 
could not have descended from the annular form with- 
out over-canopying the earth, as with a greenhouse 
roof; I feel then that I am justified in the claim that 
the great telluric glaciers of recent geologic times were 
melted under the tropic infiuence of the annular vapors 
and accompanying deluges from that source. 

It seems to me that the solar heat diffused among 
these upper vapors (after they once became a part of 
the attenuated atmosphere) by constant accumulation 
and radiation necessitated excessive rains in medial lati- 
tudes. The cold air moving from the frigid continents 
toward the warmer oceans and the warmer equatorial 
lands, becoming laden with the moisture of those 
regions, and returning in the circuit of currents, must, 
it seems to me, have constantly deluged the lands adja- 
cent the ice-fields ; and no doubt much of the phenomena 
attributed to diluvial action in glaciated regions can 
thus be accounted for. However, one thing seems very 
evident: such deluges need and imperatively demand 
a tropical temperature, and a tropical temperature in- 
volving a frozen world emphatically demands an annu- 
lar system ! 

Thus it appears that the very fact that the earth was 
even once glaciated compels us to admit, not only that 



200 The Earth's Annular System. 

an annular system did exist as its philosophic cause, but 
also that such a system was necessary for the dissolution 
of the great ice fields. What feature of the " Great 
Ice Age '' is there that does not confidently point us to 
that all-sufficient builder and destroyer? A ring of 
vapors and the telluric and cosmic dust it must have 
gathered throughout almost infinite time, at the begin- 
ning of the quaternary or mammoth period, declined 
from the ring-system over the equator, into the earth's 
atmosphere. As a pure result, before explained, this 
ring as it declined into the resisting atmosphere, spread 
laterally into the form of a belt, and in its effort to 
reach the poles of the earth overarched the planet and 
formed a greenhouse or tropical world. Thus per- 
petually falling and perpetually widening, in the course 
of time its polar edges hung, as it were, betwixt 
heaven and earth; pass that point where they can no 
longer hang in air, and they at once, as if broken from 
their anchorage in the skies, descend to the surface. 
Upon the very fields of luxuriant and abounding life 
that the overarching vapors had necessitated, they fell 
as snow, and overran the earth. As unknown centuries 
pass away, amid flood and tempest they reach the ocean, 
and the latter climbs the receding shores, and the 
ocean's bed goes down but to force its plastic founda- 
tion under the continents. This intruding mass of mol- 
ten or plastic mineral must lift the margin of the con- 
tinents as no other force can, and the crumpling and 
rupture of strata in many places must give rise to vol- 
canic phenomena. How strange, and yet how consistent 
and philosophic, that the exhaustless and measureless 
energy of the molten earth, transferred, I might say, 
to the annular system, and after millions of years had 



The Glacial Epochs. 201 

rolled away, be spent in making the aqueous crust of the 
earth, — lifting its rocky frame to mountain peaks by 
under-thrusts, — and sinking some portions of its crust 
to abyssal depths. 

It is plain that if the fall of annular snows be the 
true cause of the last glacial period, as here shown, it 
is reasonable to claim that there must have been glacial 
periods of greater or less importance in almost all the 
geologic ages, and that the same cause essentially pro- 
duced them all. We will, therefore, give a brief chap- 
ter upon this grand and exhaustless subject. 



CHAPTEK XI. 

A BEIEF REVIEW OF THE GEOLOGIC AGES ANT> A 

PRESENTATION OF THE EVIDENCE THEY 

AFFORD OF PRIMITIVE GLACIATION, 

ETC. 

Let US suppose that by some great change in the 
ocean's level the present continents, with their abund- 
ant evidences of glacial action, should become covered 
by its waters. In the course of ages the way-marks of 
this age would become deeply buried under the detrital 
matter of other lands. The countless millions of bould- 
ers now seen upon the surface where the northern drift 
prevails, and denoting the track of the glacier or the 
iceberg; the vast beds of morainic matter; the assorted 
sands and clays; the striated surfaces, and the living 
vegetation, now so well known to the botanists, would 
become hidden under a covering of silt, which in the 
lapse of ages would become solid rock. Suppose, then, 
the eyes of the future geologist in an age to come 
should investigate this continent again heaved from 
the deep. What signs of our last glacial period would 
he see ? Striations obliterated could afford him no evi- 
dence, and only where denudation and erosion should 
accidentally expose the buried drift could he find evi- 
dence that the quaternary was an age of ice. He 
might notice the paucity of fossils, an old drift bed, or 
peat swamp. With these he might find an occasional 
tropical plant, but with these he could come to no posi- 
tive conclusion as to the climate. The plain evidence 
we now have of alternate warmth and refrigeration 



A Brief Review. 203 

would be in great measure lost, or so confused that it 
would take a long time of careful and patient investiga- 
tion, and comparing of testimony by the geologists of 
the world, before any definite conclusion could be at- 
tained. Such difficulties as these perpetually confuse 
the investigators of this day. In the grand carbonifer- 
ous piles there is the most unimpeachable evidence that 
it was an age of tropical growth, in the lycopods, ferns 
and calamites of that era; but in the very heart of this 
evidence we find the track of the mighty glacier. In 
the permian age, amid its abundant evidence of a tropi- 
cal life; in the Eden world of the tertiaries, the great 
ice king has again and again set his heavy feet. Then, 
just as we see in the last great ice age strong evidence 
of warmth at the very foot of the glacier we may expect 
to find this conflict of evidence in all ages. ]^o won- 
der, then, as we look into the archsean formations we 
find the same difficulties. But as we admit the sudden 
downfalls of snow in the efforts of the upper deep to 
find its level — the ocean — we can readily see why we 
find so much evidence of death in the midst of life. As 
it seems impossible to explain these mysteries, so num- 
erous in the quaternary, without the aid of these great 
cataclysms, so we will ever find it of the utmost import- 
ance to have their assistance in every geologic age. The 
great objection to these sudden changes has been the 
want of a competent cause; but a source having been 
found, not only a competent but a necessary one, there 
must needs be much less difficulty in the road of the 
geologist. 

The geologist has never yet found the base of the 
aqueous stratified rocks. We know not how deeply 
these formations extend, and therefore know not how 



204 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

nor where to find tlie first evidences of glaciation. One 
thing, however, we do know; when the laurentian 
stratified beds were deposited there was an ocean on the 
earth. Then we also know that a part at least of tel- 
lurio-cosmic waters had fallen; and further that they 
fell according to law more largely in those parts of the 
earth distant from the equator. Still further, we know 
that it is possible they fell there as snows, and if not 
prevented by too great heat in the earth, these must 
have formed into glaciers, so that if we find among 
these laurentian beds even scanty evidences of ice ac- 
tion, we have reasonable grounds to predicate the ex- 
istence of glaciers. For, as above stated, time obliter- 
ates, and we are justified in putting our magnifiers upon 
all evidence and drawing conclusions from the enlarged 
image. A single pebble knowm to be such, a boulder, 
even of small size, imbedded in rock, must be admitted 
as evidence. There are small areas of archaean strata 
exposed in various parts of the earth, besides the exten- 
sive ridge in British America. They are found in most 
of the great mountain ranges; as the Appalachian, the 
Cordilleras, as well as in Xew England, and in many 
places on the Eastern continent. In many of these 
places some evidence of ice action exists. In the laur- 
entian of the Blue Bidge I have seen rounded stones 
more than a foot in diameter, firmly imbedded in the 
native rock, and strikingly different from the concre- 
tionary forms in the same matrix. In some places, as 
in the archaean of Michigan, as well as in the Ozark 
Mountains, there is an evident tendency to conglomer- 
ate formation. Among the laurentian quartzite are 
boulders of such dimensions as to require the power of 
floating ice to transport them. In some of the later 



A Brief Review. 205 

arclia3an, pebbles became an important factor in rock 
making. These pebbles and boulders are derived from 
pre-existing beds, and many of the boulders a foot or 
more in diameter.'"^ So that if conglomerate beds are 
evidence of ice action it is strongly evident in the later 
archsean. If the whole field were exposed to view, no 
doubt we would see some of the grandest monuments of 
urging floods and eroding glaciers; old moraines and 
polished pavements. But if we are disposed to doubt 
the legitimacy of such conclusions as this, from the evi- 
dence thus afforded, let us look a little further. 

We have already had abundant evidence that aqueous 
additions to the oceans must increase the potential en- 
ergies sleeping in mechanical pressure; — that every 
pound of additional pressure upon the ocean's bed adds 
additional heat to the underlying strata, already pressed 
to the point of fusion; — that every additional pound of 
pressure adds somewhat to the volume of melted mat- 
ter, which additional rock expansion must force aside. 
Hence, though the ocean's bed may be hundreds of 
miles in thickness, the expansion of the lowest beds lat- 
erally must produce crushing and plication, and this 
must form elevation. And as we have before seen, we 
cannot conceive of continent-formation by any other 
process. When more than 30,000 feet of archaean beds 
were formed as sediment from the first ocean, it was 
that much of the mineral and metallic frame ; each foot 
of thickness only adding weakness to the mighty case- 
ment. The lowest beds possessed a certain degree of 
heat as a result of mechanical pressure, and possessed 
certain dimensions resulting from that degree of heat. 
The waters at that time had their beds, and as those 

* Dana's " Manual," page 159. 



206 The Earth's Annular System. 

beds deepened, the mechanical pressure in such places 
increased on account of the gravitation of waters 
thither. This increase of pressure augmented the heat 
of the lower beds; this augmentation increased their 
dimensions and necessarily produced local plication. 
This occurring in the deep-seated beds naturally forced 
rocks between others, and this from necessity produced 
elevation upon the surface. Here the evolution of con- 
tinents began. But this beginning was not until late 
in archsean times. This continent-making and strata- 
bending did not take place until the laurentian period 
closed; for the conglomerates and coarser beds which 
show violent agitation and movement of waters, lie un- 
conformably upon the lower beds.* ISTow why is this 
order? Thus we see the laurentian proper closes at 
the very time the conglomerates are formed; and up- 
heaval of continents occurred at the very time we would 
expect it, on the supposition that snows and deluges of 
water came upon the earth. J^ow we will see how this 
same order, beginning at the very time the grand struc- 
ture lines of the continents were laid, continues un- 
broken throughout succeeding ages. A vast period of 
time rolls away, and many thousand feet of rock are 
formed over this first glacial deposit. A long quiet 
prevailed, and if no further downfall of water or other 
matter had taken place, there would, as I think, have 
been no more rock-folding and mountain-making, ex- 
cept in a local way. I mean if all the waters and their 
associated matter had descended to the earth in archsean 
or laurentian times, there could have been but one 
general upheaval and plication. We now pass from the 
quiet waters of the closing archsean across the boundary 

* Dana's " Manual," page 159. 



A Brief Review. 207 

of paleozoic time. We enter almost immediately upon 
a cold and stormy age ; for its first epoch is a time of 
boulder transportation and formation of coarse sand- 
beds. These are followed by finer beds, indicating 
succeeding quieter waters. The acadian epoch of Daw- 
son, or the lower cambrian of English geologists, is 
still more plainly the time of glacial action than the 
archaean. Bordering on the archsean, in Clinton and 
St. Lawrence counties, also in Franklin Co., IST. Y., the 
conglomerates occur in heavy masses. In some places 
beds more than 200 feet thick are found. In East 
Tennessee and North Carolina occur the Oconee con- 
glomerate beds extending over a wide horizon. And 
according to Dr. Hayden, conglomerate beds lying on 
the archaean are found in the Black Hills of Dakota. 
In Northwest Scotland, in Lapland, Norway and Swe- 
den, conglomerate beds are placed low down in the 
Cambrian (lower silurian), where they lie unconform- 
ably upon the older rocks. Geikie, looking at these 
facts, is inclined to assign some of these conglomerates 
to a glacial origin.^ And when we see in some places, 
as in the eastern part of North America, there was a 
general extermination of primordial forms of life, at 
the very time these beds were formed, f the evidence 
of refrigeration and glaciation becomes very apparent. 
Eor it is well-known that species that lived in the 
acadian or lower cambrian are not found in the upper 
beds, and in the former some crustaceans of enormous 
size became extinct forever; while no trilobites, so far 
as known, so common in the lower beds, are found in 
the next period. This appears to be the case not only 

* " Great Ice Age," page 478. 
t Dana, page 181. 



208 The Earth's Annular System. 

in this country, but also in the lingula flags of the Eng- 
lish division, showing that both hemispheres were 
likely subjected to similar changes from the same causes. 
There was, as the evidence seems to show, a far-reaching 
cause of extermination; and as this destruction of spe- 
cies took place at the time the great conglomerate beds 
of the lower silurian were formed, the evidence is cer- 
tainly strong that paleozoic time began with the close 
of a glacial period. But we have seen that a glacial 
period necessitates a sudden accumulation of snows, fol- 
lowed by rushing floods; and as one glance at the con- 
glomerate and boulder beds and their associates will 
convince the most incredulous that they show violent 
agitation and rapid deposition as well as catastrophic 
change, we are still further confirmed in the belief of 
annular downfalls. Compared with the succeeding 
beds of the Canadian and Trenton periods, no one can 
doubt a radical and general change of conditions; the 
latter periods indicating a long time of calm and quiet 
seas, and a warm climate over a great part of the earth; 
and the former pointing to conditions antagonistic to 
life, and evidently a step backward, preparatory for a 
grand leap in the line of progress. 

But here again we are met mth a decisive test. If 
these coarse formations were glacial deposits, or the re- 
sult of urging floods from on high, then the oceans were 
augmented at the time they were formed, and upheaval 
and crumpling of strata must have immediately fol- 
lowed this increase of pressure upon the ocean's floor. 
It is with but little astonishment, then, but yet with 
a deep satisfaction, that an investigation of these hoary 
rock-volumes reveals the very test at the very time we 
need it. Geologists the world over know that such 



A Brief Review. 209 

continent-making and crust-disturbance occurred then 
and there. The conglomerates and their related beds 
lie unconformably upon the lower beds, and in turn 
have similar relations to the overlying strata. The 
snows evidently came some time between the archsean 
and mid-silurian. The waters rolled away to the seas; 
the crumpling came, and the lingering glacier and the 
tottering iceberg, working as they do to-day, during un- 
known time, formed rock accumulations upon the up- 
turned beds. Thus it seems that the archsean was 
closed by glaciation and flood, and that the resulting 
disturbance reached far into the cambrian, and that the 
paleozoic strata were planted upon the glacial ruins of a 
former world. 

Now having closed a rough and stormy age resulting 
from aqueous and snowy downfalls, as the very nature 
of annular formation requires a period of quietude and 
rest, while the next ring is preparing during countless 
ages perhaps for its final fall, as it overcanopies the 
earth, it is plain that we must find the next phase of 
the Silurian age to agree with this demand. We must 
expect a warm age, favorable to organic evolution; and 
as these are the very conditions, as announced above, in 
the Canadian and Trenton periods that followed this 
great disturbance, we can only add one more link to 
the great chain of evidence. Immediately following 
this great plication during the lower silurian there 
came a long period of comparative quiet. During this 
long age it is likely that icebergs from the polar world 
continued to transport foreign materials and drop them 
over the sea-bottom as at this day. 

After many thousand feet of calcareous and silicio- 
calcareous matter were deposited, there came a time 



210 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

which we may call mid-silurian, when many species in 
the midst of life's full tide passed away. Vast num- 
bers of lower Silurian species never passed this gap in 
Silurian time into the upper beds. This fact is well 
known. In peering into this remarkable hiatus, ap- 
parently in the very noon-tide of primordial life, well 
might the illustrious Dana exclaim: " This wide exter- 
mination shows change and catastrophe." * As all or- 
ganisms of that age known to the geologists were 
oceanic forms, this catastrophic change proves a radical 
and abrupt change in the constitution of the terrestrial 
waters, which in the very start drives us to concede 
the fall of additional waters from on high. But this 
conclusion necessitates the augmentation of polar snows 
and a wide expanse of continental glaciers. If, there- 
fore, we find the glacier's track and the dead forms of 
exterminated life side by side, the argument would 
seem to be complete, and we would look to annular 
downfalls as the cause of both. 

'Now the existence of boulders and conglomerated 
pebbles, the inevitable products of glaciation in the 
medio-silurian, is known to all. On the American con- 
tinent the first step we take in upper silurian lands is 
among the Oneida conglomerate, a formation in many 
places literally filled with pebbles and water-worn 
boulders dragged from older beds. The Oneida con- 
glomerate extends from Central IN'ew York, almost 
through the entire length of the Appalachian range. 
European geologists repeatedly refer to these boulders 
and conglomerates in the upper silurian. Dr. Dawson, 
of Canada, viewing the angular fragmental blocks in 
the I^ova Scotia beds of this age, says: ^^ These materials 

♦Dana's "Manual," page 212. 



A Brief Review. 211 

seem precisely similar to those which are at present 
produced by the disintegrating action of frost," etc. 
The heavy blocks and angular boulders in the Scottish 
highlands are claimed by some authors to belong to 
the inter-silurian age of ice. But this argument be- 
comes most complete when we find that these features 
of inseparable extermination and ice action culminated 
in the tilting of strata and mountain upheaval, proving 
that an energy was added to the ocean's pressure. At 
that time the great Cincinnati anticlinal was formed. 
The Green Mountains were lifted on high, with their 
beds of the lower silurian upon them; and other parts 
of !N'ew England were then raised from the ocean. In 
Europe, also, were extensive upheavals, and coincident 
exterminations, so that I presume all geologists will ad- 
mit that that age (medio-silurian) was one of extensive 
upheaval. Thus a remarkable triplicity of events is 
known, and each member of the union points to annular 
declension. 

Again the glacier and the iceberg melt away, and a 
long period of comparative quiet, during which stupen- 
dous formations of calcareous rock were deposited, in- 
tervenes. The old silurian ocean grew warm, and new 
life-forms filled its waters.* Why did it grow warm? 
Why did many of its inhabitants perish as by a stroke, 
and new tribes take their places? Here is where the 
heavy dolomitic or magnesian limestone beds were 
formed. If their constituents were in the waters that 

* It must be evident to the philosophic mind that new life-forms 
could not and would not take possession of our oceans, unlesa 
their waters were radically changed by a vast addition. Now 
while at the same time such additions would exterminate old 
forms as well as demand new ones, and said additions also cause 
upheaval and glaciation, it is plain that the annular system must 
come in as the great cause of all these changes. 



212 The Earth's Annular System. 

fell in more primitive times, why were they not de- 
posited long before this ? If they were deposited long 
before, why did the waters take them up again and de- 
posit them anew? And how did the waters work 
through the great mass of Canadian and Trenton lime- 
stones, refusing to appropriate their constituents in or- 
der to get at those more deeply buried beneath them? 
!N'ow, as we are forced by other circumstances, it seems 
to me, to admit this oceanic augmentation, and are 
here again compelled to face some of the most unphilo- 
sophic and impossible propositions, if such a conclusion 
is not conceded, our claim that a new ocean had de- 
scended upon the earth, and from its waters the vast 
beds of dolomites were deposited, as so much of the 
great fund of tellurio-cosmic dust native in the annular 
system, is one that under any circumstances, it must be 
conceded, should be respected. When we admit an- 
other downfall in the medio-silurian, we can see the 
new environment that necessitates new life-forms, on 
the ashes of the old; we can see why the deposit was 
magnesian lime and not a carbonate; why there were 
signs of rushing floods and refrigeration; why there 
was curving of strata. Uncounted millenniums moved 
down the tide of time as this great limestone formation 
progressed; and as the waters became relieved of their 
burden other organisms came into existence. In some 
parts of the earth, the oceanic waters approached that 
condition adapted to the proto-typical forms of the ver- 
tebrate races; for even before we pass the boundaries 
of Silurian time some of the ancestors of devonian life 
appear as timid pioneers upon the scene, while at the 
same time some coral and crinoidal forms become ex- 
tinct. These changes — the sudden dying out of specific 



A Brief Review. 213 

and even generic forms, and the sudden advent of new 
ones, without any intermediary link of relationship to 
existing forms — points to the annular system as the 
seed-bed of organisms. Of this more hereafter. 

As geologists have long recognized the fact that 
there is a definite boundary line between the silurian 
and the next succeeding age, or devonian; and as I 
have before intimated that each geologic age was closed 
by a fall of annular matter, this boundary will be our 
field of observation. In many places the passage from 
the silurian into the devonian is quite abrupt. Through- 
out the Appalachian field the transition is marked by 
the presence of vast beds of mechanical sediment, in- 
dicative of great agitation of waters, and known gener- 
ally in America as Oriskany sandstone. This forma- 
tion is an extensive one, and in many places is so coarse 
as to be a veritable conglomerate, indicative of ice ac- 
tion. In the Old World there does not appear such 
positive evidence of ice movements; but in its place is 
other evidence of either a cold age, or a new supply of 
ocean waters. The deposits of the two continents are 
marked by a scarcity in many places of organic remains. 
In my own State where the Oriskany is widely lain, 
they are almost entirely absent. ISTow as the beds im- 
mediately below this formation indicate by their fos- 
sils warm and quiet waters, it becomes more positively 
indicative of climatic refrigeration. In the lower beds 
more than 300 species have been found and known, and 
what is more important and striking, they are in great 
part characteristically distinct from those above. That 
a wide reach of calcareous f ossiliferous rock should be 
overlain by an equally extensive and sparsely f ossilif er- 



214 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

ous sand and conglomerate formation, it must be ad- 
mitted, shows catastrophic change, — flood and disaster. 

Sometimes the shells of the lower beds are packed in 
great numbers in the upper, and this has caused some 
geologists to place the Oriskany in the silurian division. 
But its forming simply a passage-bed between this and 
the devonian, and laid down by ice and flood, will read- 
ily account for all these things. Thus as we move up- 
ward we see the same expected evidence of sudden and 
exterminating changes. If we consider the Ludlow 
beds of Europe as the representatives of this passage- 
bed — the Oriskany and Helderberg — and protected 
somewhat from the full effects of refrigeration, the 
gradation upwards is so far complete. And when we 
find the former in no small degree placed unconform- 
ably upon the upper silurian, and the same unconform- 
ability on the Western Continent, we simply find the 
same adequate cause of crust-breaking and mountain- 
making at work. We find in both continents the full 
effects of stupendous additions of oceanic waters, and 
extensive continental uplifts immediately resulting. In 
many places, and notably upon the eastern border of 
this continent, the strata were upturned immediately 
after the first devonian beds were laid do^vn. This 
places the operating cause of mountain-making in com- 
pany with the extermination of species, the urging of 
floods and climatic change, as in all other cases, and 
directs us to the annular waters. 

There were many minor changes of this character 
in the long ages of the devonian, but we will pass over 
them all to the border-land of the so-called carbonifer- 
ous, where we find abundant evidence of ice action in 
the passage beds of the two ages; not alone in the 



A Brief 'Review. 215 

numerous beds of massive conglomerates, but in their 
wide spread over the continents. Dr. Dawson has said, 
in speaking of ISTova Scotia: "In passing do^vnward 
from the carboniferous, we constantly meet with un- 
conformabilitj.'' And Dana: " An epoch of disturbance 
of the eastern border region intervened between the 
devonian and carboniferous.'' * Great beds of con- 
glomerate at the base of the carboniferous are formed 
into actual glacial moraines in different parts of Scot- 
land, f Beds of sub-carboniferous moraines are authen- 
tically reported from Australia. I believe it is gener- 
ally conceded that these are the work of ice, and geolo- 
gists stand perplexed and amazed over the numerous 
morainic beds among the coal-bearing strata of Amer- 
ica. Without a competent source of snows we might 
well feel perplexed in our efforts to explain the source 
of a glacier, reaching from the north polar world, be- 
fore the birth of the Himalayas, to the Australian con- 
tinent. If there be any reliance in the autobiography 
of transported materials, which make up these ancient 
moraines, that space of time between the formation of 
the upper devonian beds and those of the lower carboni- 
ferous must have been one in which the earth was 
severely under the dominion of the Ice King. Any one 
whose eyes are accustomed to fall daily upon the mor- 
ainic matter of the great North American ice-sheet of 
modern geologic times, will not fail to put the consoli- 
dated boulder-drift found below and among the lower 
coal measures in the same class. 

There are some facts connected with the carbonifer- 
ous quite remarkable. One of these is the repeated oc- 

* Dana's "Manual," page 289. 

t Geikie's " Great Ice Age," page 479. 



216 The Earth's Annular System. 

currence of conglomerated beds intercalated between 
seams of coal.* Tliere are at least four coal seams 
opened in Pennsylvania around Shamokin, between 
five beds of conglomerate, in a vertical space of 250 
feet; and in the body of the conglomerate itself at 
Pottsville important coal beds have been opened. But 
these are not rare occurrences. They occur in other 
parts of the United States. Also in ^ova Scotia (Daw- 
son), as well as on the continent of Europe (Godwin- 
Austen). So that it must be admitted that conglom- 
erates and coal are natural, not accidental associates. 
(Let the reader remember this very important fact.) 

!N^ow, reasonable men will concede the fact that these 
conglomerates necessitate the movement of glaciers 
and icebergs. But what a marvelous puzzle! Float- 
ing icebergs and continental glaciers in a hot-house 
world ! glacial epochs repeated again and again in the 
very land where and at the very time a luxuriant vege- 
tation was forming vast beds of coal ! ! and these all ac- 
companied by rushing, impelling and devouring floods. 
" Geologists are staggered by these appearances," so 
says Geikie. And they must and will be sorely puzzled 
until they admit the philosophy of sudden downfalls of 
snow and other annular matter that brought each age 
to a close, and frequently characterized the age through- 
out, to a greater or less extent. But, be that as men 
choose to make it; here in the very field, bearing un- 
impeachable testimony to a warm climate, are multi- 
tudes of witnesses establishing beyond a doubt the fact 
of glaciation. We must reconcile these things by the 
administration of Law. 

One glance at this complex system of carboniferous 

* Report of Progress, Penna. Geol. Sur., page 628. 



A Brief Review. 217 

strata forces, it seems to me, two very important con- 
clusions. The intimate, and as is often the case, the 
immediate contact of the remains of a luxuriant vege- 
tation, with massive conglomerate beds, — the well- 
known products of excessive glaciation, — proves that 
the snows of that olden age came suddenly and repeat- 
edly upon a world of life. From this again comes the 
necessary conclusion that the oceanic waters were great- 
ly increased in volume, and we must therefore expect 
as a legitimate and necessary consequence a system of 
upheavals and strata-folding correspondingly stupend- 
ous and grand. Must I point my brother geologists to 
the well-known facts that support this latter conclusion ? 
Need I tell them that the continents grown more stable 
with time would resist oceanic pressure longer, but 
when they began to move would move with grander 
strides ? E"eed I point to the great convolutions of the 
earth's crust, known to have been formed immediately 
after the carboniferous beds were laid down? The 
geologists " know these things by heart." But to the 
general reader I must devote a little time. 

It is manifest, even to a common observer, that the 
strata of the so-called carboniferous age were bent, 
crushed and folded into thousands of corrugations after 
the coal and conglomerate beds were formed, and be- 
fore the permian wave rolled by. In the Appalachian 
coal field this is eminently the case. In this region the 
rocks to the inmost depths took part in the general pli- 
cation. The stolid piles of laurentian, the universal 
casement of the world's silurian, confined under the 
heavy beds of the devonian, and the devonian beds 
themselves, all moved in response to the potential 
energy accumulated as the waters increased, and other 



218 The Earth's Annular System. 

matter from the amiiilar system gathered upon the 
ocean's floor. It was emphatically a mountain-forming 
era. Some of the greatest mountain ranges were then 
lifted from their ocean beds. Speaking of this age, 
Dana, whose authority few will venture to question, 
says : * " There were no AUeghanies, for this region 
was a part of the coal-making plain; there were no 
Kocky Mountains, for these, as the carboniferous lime- 
stones prove, were mainly under the sea." Again he 
says : f " The coal period was a time of unceasing 
change; — eras of universal verdure, alternating with 
others of widespread waters, destructive of all vegeta- 
tion, and other terrestrial life, except that which cov- 
ered regions beyond the coal measure limits." 

^ow when we reflect that such extensive extermina- 
tions, such great mountain upheavals, such great beds 
of conglomerates were produced while yet the fund of 
annular matter was unexhausted, where else can we look 
for the true cause of these changes ? Why were such 
wide reaches of coal beds formed in the lap of the gla- 
ciated world? Well might geologists stand perplexed 
and amazed over such inconsistencies. In England and 
Scotland the same mountain forming went on, at or 
near the same time. We cannot close our eyes to this 
wondrous co-relation of phenomena. The light cast 
upon these questions in recent times is penetrating and 
dissolving the mists, and thoughtful men are now be- 
ginning to read the ipse dixit of the living rock; and 
will not cling much longer to the unnatural and un- 
philosophic theory of geological growth as now main- 
tained. We have seen the grand and stupendous up- 

* " Manual," page 355. 
t " ]Manual," page 359. 



A Brief Review. 219 

heaval of continents, and the rearing of mountains that 
closed the so-called carboniferous age, and yet the car- 
bonaceous deposits never ceased to form, — never ceased 
to fall as carbon dust, — till the last remnant of upper 
waters had descended to the earth after man was placed 
thereon. 

Let us now take a glance at the permian, evidently 
a transition period of the carboniferous, — a time when 
the old life-forms began to decline and ^^ run out,'' and 
a new environment demanded new ones, and in response 
to which a new page in geological history was written. 
But the permian, in order to be a time of such transi- 
tion, must have been a time of great physical changes, 
whereby new environments were made; and conglom- 
erate beds found in strata belonging to this period 
plainly tell us that such changes did take place. We 
find in different lands these conglomerates made up 
largely of exotic stones, some of large size, and I have 
no doubt that if we could see the broad fields of the per- 
mian we would see a glacial period well defined. As it 
is, however, the rocks of this age are not so largely ex- 
posed as those of former ages, at least in I^orth Amer- 
ica. But in addition to conglomerate beds the permian 
has also large deposits of coal. Those who have ex- 
amined stones of the former beds in fact, and who have 
expressed a sentiment as to their origin, I believe gen- 
erally favor the view that they were carried to their 
resting ground by ice. Both Geikie and Kamsay are 
of this opinion. Geikie says: " Ramsay has given a de- 
tailed account of the occurrence in permian conglom- 
erate of blunted and well-scratched stones, which seems 
conclusively to prove the existence of glaciers and ice- 



220 The Earth's Annular System. 

bergs." The same authority claims that the permian 
conglomerate of Germany shows a like origin. 

These things being well-established facts we can no 
longer doubt that the permian witnessed one or more 
glacial periods. Then if our theory be true that such 
periods were brought about by measureless reaches and 
down-rushes of snow, the oceans must have again in- 
creased in volume and depth, and we must find evi- 
dences of this in the flexures and curves of strata, in 
connection with the glacial beds. As according to 
these indications in the carboniferous era and all previ- 
ous ages the upheaval came, we will look as confidently 
for permian upheaval as we would expect thunder to 
follow the " lightning's fiery wing." ^' Murchison," says 
Dana, " remarks that the close of the carboniferous (in- 
cluding the permian, of course) was especially marked 
hy disturbances and upliftings.'^ (Italics mine.) 
Again, Dana remarks that all the country between the 
Atlantic and the Mississippi arose from the ocean in 
the permian period.* Again, ^^At the close of the per- 
mian there were great dislocations." And, again, the 
same authority says : " It is manifest that the period 
between the close of the carboniferous and the triassic 
was one of enormous disturbance." De Beaumont's 
" System of the ^N'etherlands " includes the dislocations 
of the permian beds along the base of the Hartz Moun- 
tains; also those in IN'assau and Saxony, which preceded 
the triassic beds, as well as many cotemporaneous dis- 
turbances in the permian of Wales and France. In the 
Ural Mountains permian flexures also occur; and it 
seems likely that the ruptures noticed in Australian 
permian occurred at the same time. These oscillations 

• Dana's " Manual," page 368. 



A Brief Review. 221 

^' show cotemporaneous movements on both sides of the 
Atlantic Ocean. '^ * 

Here let me call the reader's attention to these co- 
temporaneous displacements in both and perhaps all 
continents. How did it happen that over much of the 
American continent, and over lands separated from it 
by the expanse of oceans, elevations should occur, just 
at the time the snows and floods of the permian reached 
the oceans ? Why a feature in such remarkable har- 
mony with annular declension ? But suppose those ex- 
terminations which our theory demands should here 
fail to support us. It would be a disastrous failure of 
the annular theory. Such witnesses will not forsake 
us. They crowd around us in greater profusion as we 
move down the great tide of geologic changes. The 
carboniferous cataclysms reveal the dead forms in 
abundance; they lie thickly strewn over the permian 
world, and new species spring, as it were, from their 
dust. Forms weakened and depauperated in the car- 
boniferous age cease to exist before the close of the per- 
mian. Coral animals that formed oceanic reefs in olden 
time far more extensive than those in modern waters, 
so nearly perished that but a few straggling members 
of the great family Cyathophillus appeared afterwards ; 
and some of the ganoidal fishes at the close of the per- 
mian had passed away. On the other hand, crocodilian 
forms came upon the scene, and finally almost possessed 
the earth, f The great family of Trilobites became ex- 
tinct, as well as many mollusks. Many vegetable forms 
also died out. It was the last of the Sigillaria and 
Lepidodendra. ITow it must be admitted that while 



* Ibid., page 394„ 
t Ibid., page 371. 



222 The Earth's Annular System. 

this extermination of old forms was in many instances 
a gradual process, we cannot avoid the conclusion that 
^' at the close of long periods and epochs there were 
more general exterminations/' * — catastrophic changes 
that abruptly closed the life-period of many organisms. 
So far then as our investigations have been carried we 
find a most remarkable connection and co-relation of 
phenomena. We find there has been a regular routine 
of changes individually dependent upon the grand 
cause we have herein set forth. "We have seen a fall 
of annular matter in the historic period, and we there- 
fore know that the same kind of changes took place 
many times in the geologic ages, and when we examine 
these changes more minutely we see how harmoniously 
the indications point to the great conclusions here 
drawn. ISTot a link is missing in the great chain, and 
we must now see that our conclusions are in the main 
correct. 

I might follow the geologic record exhaustively 
through these changes, from the close of the permian, 
through the triassic, Jurassic, cretaceous, etc., and 
show that in each period there are unmistakable signs 
of recurring glacial epochs, by which wide and sweep- 
ing exterminations of species were effected. In each 
epoch is the evidence of boulders and conglomerates. 
Each epoch is brought to a close by crust disturbance, 
and each disturbance preceded by flood and violence; 
and we need no longer be puzzled by "the fact that at 
each period the continents took a " plunge bath in the 
seas '' before they were lifted to greater height. They 
were simply lifted higher by the waters as they sought 
their level. If this be not the true explanation of this 

• Dana's " Manual," page 384. 



A Brief Review. 223 

puzzling enigma, where shall we look for another ? To 
suppose that each time the continents are raised a few 
feet from the ocean they must first take this baptismal 
plunge is too ridiculous and unphilosophic for this en- 
lightened age. And yet we read it as the deliberate 
conclusion of eminent men. The continents were in- 
deed baptized and lifted from the deep, but under the 
eternal fixity — law. This digression will prepare us 
for an examination of the more recent periods. These 
things are to-day within the purview of all investiga- 
tors. I have looked over the more obscure and diffi- 
cult periods and ages, and shown their necessary de- 
pendence upon annular falls, and I will now leave the 
more apparent path for other men, and will draw my 
conclusion here by a rapid run over the remaining field. 
Some of the more recent periods were characterized by 
the most stupendous revulsions and upheaval. The 
Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas were lifted in these 
modern times. At the close of the Jurassic period oc- 
curred one of the grandest series of mountain -makings 
the world ever saw. E'ot only at that time were the 
Rocky Mountains lifted higher, but the great ]!^evada 
range, the Humboldt and Uintah Mountains, were 
heaved from the bosom of the Pacific, and all the con- 
tinents were to some extent moved to their very cen- 
ters. At the close of the cretaceous period they were 
again moved to their prof oundest depths, and again we 
see the track of the glacier and the stroke of death. Be- 
ginning in the permian period the reptilian forms finally 
had unbounded sway upon the earth at the beginning of 
the cretaceous; but this period passed away with th : 
almost complete destruction of mesozoic forms. Those 
monstrous members of the reptilian family, as the pie- 



224 The Earth's Annular System. 

siosaurus and ichthyosaurus, fell victims of that Tiniver- 
sal catastrophe. The Old World was passing by with, 
sudden and giant strides. Again and again the man- 
tle of bloom and life overspreads the earth, and again 
and again it falls as the winding aheet of the giant dead. 
As reptilian forms gave way the ancestral forms of the 
mammal family (horse, elephant, ox, etc.) began their 
long and universal control of the earth. But through 
ice and flood they finally passed away. As I look over 
the ancient forage ground of the tertiary mammals, 
and see also the great telluric graveyards, where in im- 
mense numbers they have been gathered, doubtless by 
driving and sweeping floods, I am so vividly impressed 
with the suddenness and completeness of these visita- 
tions that it seems to me we need nothing more than a 
simple prospect of the battle-grounds and battle-scenes 
of the tertiaries to convince us that the claims I have 
here made are essentially true, even if no other evidence 
could be found. If some appalling flood should in thia 
day sweep every animal from the Mississippi Valley, 
and bury it in the Gulf of Mexico, the latter could be- 
come no more really the home of the dead forms of this 
age than the great West and Xorthwest is to-day the 
burial ground of eocene, miocene and pliocene forma 
packed in countless numbers. 

Xow a short rehearsal may be in place. In the fore- 
going chapter I have labored to show that the glaciers 
of the quaternary were caused by a sudden down-rush 
of annular snows, and that from the condition in which 
the imbedded animals are found no other reasonable 
cause or source can be found. I then point out the 
philosophic and necessary consequence of such an ava- 
lanche from on high, such as specific extermination, wide 



A Brief Review. 225 

flood deposits and rock displacement. We then find 
the same signs of glaciation in all the geologic ages, 
save, perhaps, the true archsean, and find also that 
such glacial evidence is accompanied by the same inevi- 
table results of continental disturbance, mountain up- 
thrusts, flood-baptisms and exterminations, and that at 
each of these visitations a new ocean is formed, as 
shown by new life forms. These natural associates we 
find continually in company, running through the en- 
tire series of ages, a four-fold cord of evidence that no 
argument can break — witnesses that no force can sever 
— while the general exterminations found attending 
them force the conviction upon us that our conclusions 
are correct. E^ow in the first place we cannot account 
for these universal exterminations of life-forms, whereby 
whole races of animals inhabiting different continents 
vanish, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye, except 
through catastrophic flood, or universal snows. In the 
second place, we cannot account for morainic and other 
drift diffusion except by rushing waters and moving ice ; 
and, thirdly, we cannot satisfactorily account for the 
grand and universal uplifting of strata from the oceans 
as radiating centers of force, except through augmenta- 
tion of volume and weight, by water and other exotic 
matter. We know that the forces that have upheaved 
the continents have always acted from the oceans, and 
that they have acted again and again, and we know that 
the oceans cannot of themselves give or use this force 
again, after it is once applied, except through force 
stored up as potential, either by additional waters or 
solid matter. Every boulder dropped by an iceberg in 
the Atlantic acts as an atom in the balance of conti- 
nents, and so sure as the day comes when the ocean's 



226 The Earth's Annular System. 

weight in the scale becomes so great as to move the 
beam, its bottom must go down ! It matters not whether 
the inmost depths are a molten sea; the pressure upon 
the sea-bottom can become so great as to fuse the deep- 
est strata, and force it laterally under the continent. 
So that the latter are to-day, without doubt, supported 
by rocks or molten matter interpolated between the 
solid center and the surface by pressure from the seas. 
Thousands of feet of conglomerate and other foreign 
matter have been formed into beds on the sea bottom, 
and thousands of feet in depth have been added to the 
oceans. And when we see that many times the upward 
movement of the crust has been simultaneous in differ- 
ent continents, and occurred with a flood or ice period, 
we have, it seems to me, no possible way of avoiding 
the conclusions here drawn. Xow when we take a com- 
prehensive glance backward upon these numerous down- 
rushes of matter from on high we cannot wonder longer 
at the constant oscillation of sea and land throughout 
the geologic ages. We see forces employed competent, 
and causes adequate to accomplish these grand results, 
and we see them acting in harmony with law; in har- 
mony with nature in every field, astronomical or geo- 
logical. 

!N'ow as we look over the hotly contested field where 
the glacialists and anti-glacialists meet in interminable 
war, we can plainly see the real cause of the conflict. 
It is an honest difference. Since no competent source 
of snows can be found on earth, Prof. Dawson has de- 
clared substantially that a great continental glacier is 
a. physical impossibility, and so long as such a source 
cannot be found, the professor stands upon a rock im- 
pregnable to all assault. But he stands a hero sur- 



A Brief Review. 227 

rounded by fearful odds. A dozen glacialists, with 
Prof. I^ewberry, one of America's great geologists, at 
their head, have examined the great drift areas of the 
world with honest intentions, and their practiced eyes 
have seen too much not to know the glacier track, and 
the universal verdict is that it has been. Its indelible 
way-marks are carved as with an instrument of iron in 
and on the living rock. The blooming valley, the lux- 
uriant forests, and the mountain's rock-ribbed sides, 
have felt its rude embrace. 

"Now this is the actual state of the question. A great 
continental glacier, without a competent source! I 
presume the great champion of the " iceberg theory " 
would be one of the very first men to admit the univer- 
sality of glacial action, provided an efficient source of 
snows could be found. His powerful mind is too 
familiar with known facts not to see that this is now the 
desideratum, and while it will not bend to unphilosophic 
demands it will follow the dictum of law. The mistake 
of the glacialists is that they claim the earth now pos- 
sesses an adequate source of snows when every feature 
of philosophic law is against such a conclusion. 

But where are the glaciers that the super-aerial va- 
pors must have formed as they gravitated to the earth ? 
If both these parties could be led to see the irresistible 
conclusion demanded by the philosophy of the heavens 
and the earth that the oceans that now dash around the 
world could never have reached the surface of the 
planet, except by snow and flood, this otherwise inter- 
minable conflict would cease. There can be no terres- 
trial source of continental glaciers. The interior of a 
continental glacier could not be fed by snows from 
the oceans without the fraction of all law. The decline 



228 The Earth's Annular System. 

of the earth's annular system is, I think, in harmony 
with every requirement both of the glacial and anti- 
glacial schools. May I not challenge either one to pre- 
sent a feature it cannot explain? For nearly twenty 
years I have seen with profoundest regret these honest 
efforts of opposing parties, spent as they ever must be, 
so I think, in fruitless labor. It must be so. It must 
be true that every pound of the grinding, carving 
energy of the mighty glacier was stored up in the 
earth's annular system by Pluto's potential arm. The 
solar beam now only supplements that action in a con- 
tinuation of the process ever circumscribed by law. 

It is well known that the famous Sir Charles Lyell 
during the active part of his life urged upon geologists 
the important fact that almost from the dawn of recog- 
nizable changes in the earth, the change in climate, the 
extermination of species and the change of ocean's level 
were a triplicity of changes that always remained un- 
broken in the order of their occurrence. If there was 
a climatic change there was a new distribution of 
oceanic waters, and at the same time old organic forms 
died out, or were depauperated into races of underlings, 
and new forms came into existence under a new environ- 
ment. This triplicity in the grand processes of world- 
making is most significant in the light of annular de- 
clension. Those great warm ages in medial and later 
geological times, when the world enjoyed a tropical or 
sub-tropical temperature, were followed by ages more 
or less arctic ; and the world of animals that sprung into 
existence in the warm age gave way to species of a 
hardier type. Just as in the Adamic period races of 
weaklings gave way to more dominant types, so in all 
ages the same physical changes must have had the same 



A Brief Review. 229 

far-sweeping causes. The warm climate of the adam- 
ite period, and the competent cause, before set forth, 
are the grand keys that unlock this midnight mystery. 

As in a greenhouse it would be impossible to keep 
a tropical temperature amid the cold of the wintry 
world without a protecting roof, so it seems to me it 
would be as impossible to convert this earth into a tropi- 
cal world as it hurries on its way amid the more than 
arctic cold of interplanetary space, unless guarded by 
a protecting canopy of vapors, of which the annular 
deep was a necessary source. But the same protect- 
ing roof, under which the hothouse world brought 
forth its hothouse organisms, by its fall became the 
very source and cause of refrigeration that brought in 
hardier types, and mingled them together on the same 
floor. 

When we see animals of a temperate or sub-temper- 
ate climate solidly frozen up in eternal ice, how can we 
but conclude that here is the adequate cause of the cli- 
matic changes that have so frequently swept over the 
earth in the geologic past ? The record is plain. The 
organisms of a warm climate w^ere crushed and buried 
under the heel of winter. Winter could not have set 
his heavy foot upon a tropical land except through a 
fall of snows in the polar region. ISTeither could the 
mighty grip of the Ice-King have been softened, and 
the universal sweep of glaciers transformed into urg- 
ing floods, except through the involving canopy. And 
now when we see the unmistakable track of floods, 
*' vast beyond conception," at the very time the glacier 
stretched its naked front across the continents, need we 
longer marvel at this triple order of changes ? A vast 
debacle of snow and water, continuing for unknown cen- 



230 ' The Earth's Annular System. 

turies ! The pure result, a new distribution and condi- 
tion of oceanic waters, refrigeration and consequent ex- 
termination of species ! 

If the illustrious Lyell had but caught one glimpse 
of the cause of this co-linking of changes so comprehen- 
sive, what an imperishable monument that master-mind 
could have reared for the admiration of the world ! See 
the limitless snow-fields, covering much of the Northern 
Hemisphere, filling the valleys, and towering over 
mountains, until one vast winding-sheet hides the living 
continents! The revolving vapors having fallen, the 
sun shines down upon the snows, but as powerless as it 
now shines upon the glaciers of the Alps or the Him- 
alayas ; the ice-cap could not by this have been softened 
into floods. But, lo ! Another telluric ring gradually 
descends into the atmosphere and over-arches the earth, 
and the ice-bound continents come directly under the 
influence of a hothouse temperature. Glaciers could 
not but soften and melt into deluges, " vast beyond con- 
ception,'' in such a world. Time rolls on; the great 
glaciers are transferred to the sea. A measureless 
pressure is lifted from the continents, and placed upon 
the ocean's bed, and that bed under the beck of law 
expands ! The plastic matter against which that bed is 
planted is forced latterly under the edges of the con- 
tinents, and these rise in the balance of energies. If 
this be not the process by which this order of changes 
is brought about, where else shall we look for efficient 
causes ? Where else shall we flnd a philosophic reason 
for the lifting of continents, the folding of strata, 
and outbursts of liquid rocks at the very time of 
climatic changes ? At the very time old forms die out ? 



A Brief Review, 231 

At the very time the ocean's wave leaves its accustomed 
shores and rolls to other lands. 

The well-known fact, then, that majestic and far- 
sweeping floods closed the last glacial epoch, it seems 
to me, forever demands a rapidity of ice dissolution that 
the solar beam could not produce through the clear at- 
mosphere of to-day. And since we must, at the same 
time we are looking for a sufficient cause for this rapid 
melting and overwhelming water, also look for the 
grand cause that made a tropic climate succeed refrig- 
eration, the grand cause of exterminations and moun- 
tain-making, the task is infinitely more difficult to ex- 
plain without the aid of terrestrial ring-falls. If 
geologists then would simply admit this little fact that 
the oceanic waters could not, and did not, all descend 
to the earth in primitive times, the mystery will vanish 
at once. The great panorama of terrestrial changes 
will unfold; for it must be seen that such waters upon 
reaching the earth in after ages could not but cause re- 
frigeration; could not but cause excessive floods; could 
not but cause extermination of specific forms; could 
not but cause new distribution and conditions of oceanic 
waters, and finally could not but cause crust-folding and 
crumpling of strata. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

evidence advanced in support of the claim that the 

earth's annular system was the seed-bed 

of organisms, and consequently a 

region of microscopic life and 

infusorial forms. 

Not many years ago I clipped the following from a 
newspaper after it had gone the rounds of publication 
in some of the leading magazines, and was accorded by 
them the importance of an established fact: 

" The somewhat rare phenomenon of a fall of golden- 
yellow snow occurred in the midst of a severe storm on 
the afternoon of the 27th of February, at Peckeloh, in 
Germany. A speciment of the water melted from the 
snow, after being kept a few days, was miscroscopically 
examined by Weber, who describes it in the ^ Wochen- 
schrif t. ' He found that it contained principally four dif- 
ferent kinds of germs or organisms, shaped respective- 
ly like arrows, coffee beans, horns and dark flat discs." 

In the year 1846, Tenth month (October) 17th, fell 
the memorable shower of miscroscopic organisms, near 
Lyons, France. This shower of microscopic germs con- 
tained more than one hundred different organized 
forms, so different from anything terrestrial, as even in 
that day to suggest to many of the French savants a 
^' cosmic origin.'' 

A shower of strange organisms, described by Darwin, 
which fell near the Cape Yerdes, covered more than a 
million of square miles, thus proving by its vast extent 




Fig. 8. SUN WITH PERIHELIA. 



Here is an attempt to approximate the general features of the 
solar forms that must have whirled their daily course across the 
vapor heavens, — "A flaming sword that turned every way.'' 
These cherub features necessarily accompanied the knowledge- 
giving tree, and at the same time were most effective world- 
guards of the way of the life-giving tree. While they flashed 
amid the vanishing vapors, neither man nor any living thing 
could partake of or behold those life-prolonging features that 
tlius became a happy type of the Life and Way. 

It is now freely admitted that the sword and the cherubim 
of Eden were solar features of some kind. When, then, we ad- 
mit the canopy as the true solar vicegerent, we see how these 
perihelia must be allowed. 



Evidence Advanced. 233 

that it had an origin beyond the limits of the terrestrial 
atmosphere. 

In the year 1803 a great shower of exotic organ- 
isms fell over a vast territory of Italy and Southern 
Europe. 

In the year 1813 a shower of organic germs fell in 
Calabria, and from specimens subjected to microscopic 
examination sixty-four different species were obtained. 

In the year 1755 one fell in Northern Italy, ^' cover- 
ing about two hundred square leagues," and covering 
the earth in places to the depth of an inch, and at the 
same time a shower which reached into Austria fell as 
colored snow in the Alps to the depth of nine feet. As 
modern researches have proven that colored snows are 
filled with organisms, giving the color thereto, we can 
scarcely imagine the immensity of organic matter in 
such showers, and can hardly conceive it to have had a 
terrestrial origin. Homer speaks in the Iliad of one of 
these organic showers. In Northern Europe such 
snows have frequently been seen, and sometimes they 
have been accompanied with carbon dust, which must 
have had its origin outside of the realm of atmospheric 
oxygen. A few years since such a shower fell in West- 
ern Kentucky. They also have been seen in Asia 
Minor and Palestine. Microscopic examination of polar 
snows shows that they are permeated with organisms 
and particles of cosmic dust. Dana has said the origin 
of these organisms and dust is unknown. One signi- 
ficant feature in the case is the great similarity of the 
organisms in all showers; more than 300 different forms 
have been determined by microscopists, and all attempts 
to find a terrestrial origin for them have failed. If 
they had been taken up from the earth in whirlwinds 



234 The Earth's Annular System. 

and tornadoes, the fact could easily be proven. Those 
which fall in Europe, one would suppose, would be 
traced to Africa, but the species so far examined prove 
that they do not come thence. Out of the 300 species 
only fifteen have been found in South America (Dana). 
In the showers above mentioned (1803 and 1813), the 
two had twenty-eight species in common, or about one- 
half. Says Dana, the " zone in which these showers 
occur covers Southern Europe, ]^orthern Africa, with 
the adjoining portion of the Atlantic and the corre- 
sponding latitudes in Western and Middle Asia." * 
Some decisive tests are well-known — a common origin 
and a common region of declension. A common origin, 
because of so many species in common, and the impossi- 
bility of finding a terrestrial source show that these or- 
ganisms have their source either in the atmosphere of 
the earth or beyond it. If we admit that source to be 
in the terrestrial atmosphere, we at once contravene 
eternal law; for in that case we presuppose that the vast 
amount of matter descending as dust showers, filled 
with organisms, was made in the atmosphere, which 
could not be. The shower that fell at Lyons, in 1846, 
was estimated by Ehrenberg at 360 tons, and 45 tons 
of it consisted of organic matter of more than 100 dif- 
ferent species. Well might Dana exclaim, after con- 
sidering the numberless instances of such falls: " With 
these facts before us, how many millions of hundred- 
weight of microscopic organisms have reached Europe 
since the days of Homer ? " 

Now I suppose some of my readers will hesitate to 
admit that organic germs exist co-extensively with mat- 

* Dana's "Manual," page 634; see also Ehrenberg's "Blood 
Rains," 1847. 



Evidence Advanced. 335 

ter. When we know that there is not a spot on the 
earth, nor within the earth beyond the limits of pres- 
ent or former igneous activity that may not possess or- 
ganic germs; scarcely a spot where life of some kind 
does not exist or has not existed; when we see the at- 
mosphere everj^^vhere contains floating germs; that in 
hot springs and in polar snows, in the lava-built walls 
of volcanoes, and even in the massive beds of the arch- 
sean rocks are found the remains of life-forms, it seems 
to me we are forced to admit the universality of mater- 
ial organisms ; that they are co-existent and co-extensive 
with matter. Can we even imagine a nebula, anywhere 
floating in the immensity of space, that does not contain 
life-germs in that potential condition necessary in the 
evolution of life? Because we are familiar with cer- 
tain life-forms, life-conditions and life-habits in a com- 
pleted world, we are not to conclude that other forms 
cannot exist in an incomplete one. The dust showers 
that from time to time fall upon the earth, then, have 
either a cosmic or tellurio-cosmic origin. They may 
be, it seems to me, micro-cosmic clouds moving in inter- 
planetary space, which meeting with the earth in its 
path are precipitated upon its surface. Since the his- 
tory of the earth reveals the fact that it has been in 
many conditions, and each condition has had its pecu- 
liar forms of life organisms ; and since every environ- 
ment now has its own forms adapted thereto ; and since, 
as each environment becomes modified or changed, 
the organic forms are also changed to harmonize there- 
with; we see it to be the declaration of law that almost 
every condition of the earth has had its peculiar forms 
of organic matter. Therefore in looking back to any 
condition of terrestrial elements, save perhaps that of 



236 The Earth's Annular System. 

plutonian activity, we must predicate some forms of 
life. Is it more probable that the omniscient Dispen- 
ser and Planner would place life-germs, or living forms, 
in an ocean of water on tbe earth than that He would 
plant them in potential attitudes in those oceans before 
they reached the earth's surface ? Take into our minds, 
for instance, the last or outmost vapors that fell at the 
time of E'oah. Having rem.ained for unknown mil- 
lions of years on high, receiving constant addition of 
meteoric and cosmic dust from without, and having 
originally received material distillations as vapors aris- 
ing from the primitive earth, can we upon mature re- 
flection conclude philosophically that that revolving 
fund of matter was not filled with organisms as surely 
as the gaseous envelope that forms our atmosphere con- 
tains them now ? I, for one, cannot conceive of matter 
in a nebuloas condition, which is not yet pregnant 
with life; since life is the original and primal force- 
element that developed into all we now behold. Can 
any philosophic mind, familiar with the grand history 
of this planet's evolution and development of its life- 
forms, under the intelligent direction of a God of law, 
look back upon the earth's annular system then, and not 
conclude that it was a region of microscopic life and in- 
fusorial forms ? Can we look out upon the annular sys- 
tem of Saturn with a Designer its eternal Pilot, and 
disconnect it with primordial life ? Can Jupiter's belts, 
necessarily composed of the elements common in the 
frame-work of worlds, illuminated and warmed by the 
electrifying and ^dtalizing power of the solar beam, — 
heaven's material vicegerent in the development and 
maintenance of physical life, — roll through space for 
millions of years, lifeless and spiritless ? 



Evidence Advanced. 237 

Now if Jupiter's belted system of mineral, metallic 
and aqueous matter should have long ago descended 
upon the planet's surface, and we could see his conti- 
nents and oceans, as we now can see those of the planet 
Mars, we would conclude that animals trod its conti- 
nents, swam in its oceans and flew in its air, — in a world 
of completeness, a congeries of completed life-forms. 
Then we are only f ollomng a line of philosophic reason- 
ing to conclude that a world of incompleteness must 
contain incomplete or primordial life-forms — ^forms 
that must in time develop according to the design of an 
Omnipotent Planner in the beginning. We see, then, 
in the organic yellow snow-cliffs of Bathurst and Green- 
land, in the dust-showers and " blood-rains " that reach 
the earth, evidence that finally leads us to the conclu- 
sion that organic forms are the natural accompaniments 
of the nebulous and elementary forms of matter. As 
we move along in this discussion we will see how true 
this must be. If such were not the case, then the 
eozoon canadense and its related forms were made as 
an immediate and separate creation after the archsean 
ocean fell to the earth, and following this the silurian 
forms in all their variety formed an individual and 
separate creation after the silurian annular matter fell. 
If these life-germs were planted in the earth alone, af- 
ter the oceans declined to its surface, then they were 
planted there in all their potentiality at that time; and 
the whole scene of organic evolution would be one un- 
interrupted transition, without a " break," without a 
" gap." The rocks would contain all the transitional 
forms, or so-called " connecting links." But how very 
different from this are the facts scientists are well 
aware. The " breaks " are there ; the " gaps " are 



238 The Earth's Annular System. 

there, and tlie geologist cannot fill them. The " links '* 
are not there, and he can never supply them. Here 
now we have room and material for a volume on organic 
evolution placed upon the only philosophic foundation 
that was ever laid for it — an evolution from mona to 
man under the guide of law that began in the earth's 
annular system and terminated in its fall. As I cannot 
follow these ideas very far without swelling this volume 
beyond proper limits, I must refer the reader to Vol- 
ume H. of this series. 

Some of my readers have doubtless heard of the " at- 
mospheric spider." These little insects have legs, and 
apparently all the organs that the common spider has, 
but its home is in the air. It has the power of throw- 
ing an exceedingly subtle spider line with an actual 
float on the end of it that rises like a balloon in the air, 
and the little animal clings to its web or line, and floats 
ofl in the atmosphere. I was once authentically in- 
formed by an eye-witness of the fact that duriag a cer- 
tain condition of the atmosphere countless thousands 
of these spiders descended to the earth, like a real 
shower of cosmic dust, and that for several hours they 
existed in immense numbers on the earth. However, 
toward the evening of the day, these all had disap- 
peared, and they were noticed to spin lines which 
floated on the air as above, and then clinging to them 
took their flight into the air. I have at different times 
beheld real gossamer showers; — countless millions of 
lines descending from the heights of the air, so thick in 
the atmosphere as to counterfeit the glare of the sun. 

My readers will likely remember reading in White's 
" History of Selborne " his account of gossamer show- 
ers which he had seen. One in particular which con- 



Evidence Advanced. 239 

tinned to settle for nearly a whole day on the earth, all 
coming down from unknown heights. 

Darwin saw a spider shower in 1832 off the coast of 
South America, 60 miles from land. He also spoke of 
their spinning a floating line or lines, which, balloon- 
like, bore the little aeronauts aloft. A writer in Cham- 
bers's Journal says : " These gossamer showers are 
great mysteries, the air on these occasions becomes lit- 
erally crowded with tiny parachutes composed of a few 
threads of almost invisible gossamer, each of the para- 
chutes being occupied by a Lilliputian aeronaut in the 
shape of a very small but active spider." This same 
writer speaks of having seen one spider shower in 1875 
and another in 1880. He says: " Fixing my eyes upon 
one of the spiders, I observed that as it left the gossa- 
mer pathway it selected a clean spot on the iron railing, 
^nd gathering its limbs closely together, it projected 
from its spinnerets several threads which expanded 
outwards and stretched upwards from nine to twelve 
inches. Then this parachute seemed to show a buoy- 
ant tendency, and suddenly the tiny creature left hold 
of the iron rail, or was lifted off it, and quickly ^ van- 
ished into thin air.' " 

Dr. Martin Lister, on one occasion, in York City, 
went to the top of the Minster, and from that lofty 
height still saw spiders there descending from heights 
unknown.* Here is evidence sufficient to prove that 
in the heights of the atmosphere beyond the points per- 
haps yet reached by man lives a race of spiders which 
are as much at home in thin air as man is on earth. 
There they live and propagate; there exists their food. 
Thin air is their peculiar habitat, as water is the home 

♦"Friend," Vol. LVI., pages 172 and 173. 



240 The Earth's Annular System. 

of fishes. N'ow if in such a location can live little ani- 
mals in countless numbers with legs and perhaps all 
the organisms peculiar to spiders, we may reasonably 
conclude that a cloud of vapor and cosmic dust floating 
in interplanetary space is also the abode of some form 
of life. If a spider can live in thin air, and also de- 
scend and live a while on the earth's surface, it could 
live in a nebular or a planetary belt. If a toad can 
live for unknown ages immured in solid rock, where 
neither air nor food can reach it, it could live, I pre- 
sume, in a revolving belt of aqueous and mineral mat- 
ter. 

ITow I am not going to advance the claim that batra- 
chians or spiders lived in the earth's annular system. 
But I must claim, however, that the manner in which 
specific living organisms have succeeded each other on 
the earth as revealed by the geologic record demands 
that that system was the cradle of infant life, — the pro- 
pagating beds in which the life-germs were placed by 
the great Gardener of nature. Men may laugh at this, 
but it is not half as ridiculous as to claim that all life 
came from monera or the rizopods in the primeval ocean 
on the earth. It is just as reasonable to suppose that 
germs took form in the waters, under the Creative 
Hand, before they fell to the earth, as afterwards, and 
when we see that each and every downfall brought in 
new life-forms which exhibit no specific relation to 
previous forms, we are forced to admit that either the 
seed-beds of the annular system provided the undevel- 
oped organisms or there was a special creation at each 
period. We are, I say, obliged to admit this, or con- 
cede the hiatus separating age from age, and form from 
form. We are obliged to admit this, or forever con- 




Fig. 9. URAXUS. (Rings Forming.) 



Uranus to-day seems to possess an uncompleted annular sys- 
tem. As the centuries roll by the astronomer riiay see the two 
dark bands near that planet's equator joined into one, and lifted 
into the Uranian skies, an actual ring-appendage, approximating 
at least the completed grandeur of the planet Saturn. 



Evidence Advanced. 241 

cede the " missing link." The germs that came in with 
the first ocean were adapted to the peculiar waters that 
fell at that time, and the germs that came in with the 
second downfall were adapted to the waters containing 
them, and the two kinds of germs were necessarily dif- 
ferent, and hence the different forms afterwards devel- 
oped from each. Hence the hiatus, hence the specific 
difference in forms with no " connecting link." 

The geologist of the future in examining the in- 
fusorial beds of the earth, as well as the compound na- 
ture of some of the earth's giant prodigies, will, I am 
sure, welcome the annular theory to his aid. It seems 
to me that if all the upper vapors and their accompany- 
ing matter had descended to the earth in primitive 
times the constitution of the aqueous crust would re- 
veal the fact by a very different structure. The reader 
can now see that the ring system, before it had taken 
the annular form consequent upon the cooling and con- 
densation of the mass, must have contained some of the 
vapors of all the vaporized minerals and metals of the 
seething globe. That as the vapors cooled and con- 
tracted on the outer boundary of the mass first, but a 
small part of the heavy metals would be contained in 
the outermost ring and the greatest part would be con- 
tained in the innermost one. And that when the inner- 
most ring fell to the earth a vast amount of the heavy 
mineral and metallic matter introduced into the vapors 
when in a heated or even superheated condition could 
not be held in solution when cold, as it could be when 
heated, and must therefore have been thrown down 
from the archsean waters as precipitates. The next 
ring would contain minerals and metals, but to a small 
extent, and the prevailing minerals and metals of the 



242 The Earth's Annular System. 

outer rings would be of a lighter character or in a 
lighter condition. Doubtless there would be traces of 
all minerals and all metals in all the rings even to the 
very outermost. So that every time an ocean of mat- 
ter descended to the earth there would be some prevail- 
ing element in that downfall, and consequently one pre- 
vailing series of organisms. Any one can see that this 
would be the arrangement according to law. E'ow 
geologists must know that in each grand age this was 
the case; that in the earliest period of aqueous deposi- 
tion the metals by all odds prevailed. In the silurian 
heavy calcareous matter prevailed. In the devonian 
the silicious and silicio-calcareous matter prevailed. In 
the carboniferous age carbonaceous matter was the 
characteristic element, and each ocean had its charac- 
teristic life-forms. ]^ow suppose that all the oceans 
had reached the earth's surface in pre-laurentian times 
with all these elements held in solution and suspension. 
In this case it is plain that all these mineral and metallic 
substances would have been precipitated or deposited in 
and from the primeval ocean, and all subsequent forma- 
tions would have to be derived from these early formed 
beds, or from cosmic space, and life would have been 
one continued evolution without a break. But how can 
we imagine that after 40,000 feet of the first formed 
beds had been laid down, and the oceans expurgated, we 
may say, the terrestrial waters the world round took 
up another vast fund of matter, first in the shape of 
the carbonate of lime (which it could not have obtained 
in such vast quantities from the laurentian beds), which 
being also deposited, the same waters after covering up 
a great part of the earth with a massive bed of lime, in- 
stead of re-charging themselves from this lime bed, re- 



Evidence Advanced. 243 

fused the opportunity, and went thousands of feet be- 
low it, and took up an enormous load of magnesian lime 
and deposited it upon the carbonate (having called in 
the creative fiat to fill the ocean with new organisms). 
A well-known geologist, after having been staggered 
by these inconsistencies, concludes that " We seem 
compelled to ascribe the difference in the composition 
of the limestones to a vital rather than to a chemical 
or physical cause." With all due deference to high 
authority, I must ask. Is this question settled ? Are we 
to expect men to make brick without dirt, or mortar 
without mud? By what imaginary process are the 
marine organisms, such as the millepores and other in- 
vertebrates, to build thousands of feet of magnesian 
lime rock, extending over millions of square miles, un- 
less they are supplied with building materials ? Whence 
did these lithophites get the magnesian lime with which 
they built this mighty casement of rock? This same 
authority says: " A preponderance of these or similar 
organisms might produce a magnesian limestone.^^ 
(Italics mine.) This question is not settled here. 
Neither a millepore, nor any number of them, nor any 
" organisms," " similar " or dissimilar, can make a lime 
rock of any kind unless that kind of material was at 
hand as a magazine of supply. Again the same geolo- 
gist says, as if to share the responsibility with another: 
" Prof. J. D. Dana has shown that the millepore con- 
tains magnesia," etc. 

Now I presume we all understand that these animals 
built the dolomites of the silurian out of the materials 
within their bodies ! This, the vital process that built 
the magnesian lime beds? Thousands of feet of lime 
rock of continental extent, built by marine organisms 



244 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

out of their own bodies ! But where did these animals 
get the magnesia that formed a " large percentage ^' 
of their bodies? Answer: From the ocean in which 
they lived ! Here, then, we are forced back to our very 
starting point. We have an ocean strongly impreg- 
nated with magnesian lime, and yet no adequate source 
beneath the annular system. What would my readers 
think of my logic if I should attempt to show the source 
of this magnesia in the silurian ocean by putting count- 
less millions of organisms in it? We do not want to 
know how the millepore secreted the lime rock, nor 
how he got his magnesia. We want to know how the 
ocean got it! ISTow we know very well that if this 
silurian ocean did not contain magnesian lime in solu- 
tion the millepore would not have been there. If the 
waters of the ocean did not contain oxygen, where 
would we find the whale ? Here is the logic of this 
question: My poultry-house contains a chicken-thief 
with a " large percentage " of fowls in his possession; 
this explains how my chickens got into the house? 
Moreover, if a " large per cent." of feathers should be 
precipitated on the floor we must conclude that the 
thief made them. 

But leaving all humor for the pure administration of 
law we find a great do^vnfall of annular waters with 
their accompanying life-germs, — a body of waters 
strongly impregnated with magnesian lime, and as a 
pure result the millepore and such other organisms as 
found here a natural habitat, came into being therein, 
and contained a " large percentage of magnesia " in 
their bodies because it was their home ! The formation 
of the magnesian limestones came as a legitimate con- 
sequence of its presence in the water, so also came the 



Evidence Advanced. 245 

organisms according to the demands of law. Such, 
limestones as were not precipitated from actual solu- 
tion, of course were formed by vital processes, ^o one 
will hesitate to admit that such a process will build a 
lime stratum. But unless lime is« contained in the 
ocean as a solution the stratum cannot be formed; 
neither can the builder be there. Then since we are 
obliged to find a source competent to supply this meas- 
ureless fund of lime, independently of the millepore, 
both carbonate and magnesian, we are compelled to 
bring in the aid of the annular system. Here the diffi- 
culty vanishes. For, as before shown, there was a 
down-rush of snows, a glacial period, an extermination 
of species, and a great uplift of strata just previous to 
the formation of this precipitated bed, which now comes 
in as a master-link of evidence, and which shows that 
there had been an addition to the ocean's volume at this 
very time, and which must have come from the annular 
system. 

I presume, then, that this question is a legitimate one : 
Why was there a silurian age when the oceanic waters 
of the entire world were changed, as shown both by 
their fossils and the character of strata ? All geologists 
know that the change from the eozoic to the silurian 
waters was a world-wide one, and how could it be possi- 
ble for the same waters that gave origin to the Potsdam 
sandstone at the base of the silurian system, in Amer- 
ica, and the kindred lingula flags of Europe, supply the 
stupendous world casement of lime unless there had 
been a vast augmentation of lime-waters ? These lime 
beds are too vast and measureless to be made by the 
same process that obtains to-day. ISTow the ocean must 
have obtained its lime and its organisms together. It 



246 The EarWs Annular System. 

is extremely doubtful whether there were river systems 
in that early period, and consequently river erosion was 
a very small and unimportant and uncertain factor ; and 
the evidence is daily accumulating that rains and foun- 
tains and streams were reduced to a minimum. It was 
not until the continents had been worn into corruga- 
tions (hills and valleys) that fountains could burst from 
the hillsides, and not until living fountains existed could 
there be perennial streams. How, then, did the infant 
continents supply detritus? By running streams? 
Surely not, unless these were fed by constant and ex- 
cessive rains. But almost every evidence of the record 
points to the fact that the pre-existing continent whence 
it is claimed that the silurian seas obtained their lime 
was a very small affair. Thus it makes no difference 
how the geologist supports his claim that the lime beds 
of the silurian were derived from older continents, he 
is continually arrested by the demands of law. I pre- 
sume the lime beds deposited in the silurian waters are 
vastly greater in volume than all the lime that has been 
carried from the existing continents. 

But the difficulty does not stop here. The silurian 
lime was laid down. The stupendous piles of devonian 
rock were placed upon them. The carboniferous came 
and placed a heavy mass of rock of all kinds upon the 
devonian. The permian ocean rolled its waves over 
these, and left its load. Thus, for countless ages, the 
continents were worn away. Then the triassic flood de- 
posited its load. Then the Jurassic. The most of 
these were oceans peculiar and characteristic of their 
times. All had their peculiar organisms. As before 
shown they began their career in the midst of violence 
and changp. feinediately after the Jurassic period 



Evidence Advanced. 247 

came the cretaceous, an ocean that washed the shores 
of the whole known world. I^ow geologists are well 
aware that the waters of the cretaceous period were 
radically different from those that preceded it. In 
many parts of the world cretaceous or chalk beds were 
deposited — calcareous beds radically different from any 
other lime-formation. From what continents did this 
ocean get its lime that it should be so different from 
every other lime-rock of the earth? As we have in 
this case, as in all others, the glacier and flood, crump- 
ling and death, it is indeed fitting that a new deposit 
at the same time should predicate a new ocean. But a 
new ocean points to the waters on high ; so does the gla- 
cier, so does the flood, the crumpling of crust, and the 
death of races. If the cretaceous deposits were only 
local we might attribute the change to local causes. 
But it was a change that left its way-marks around the 
circuit of the earth. It is these far-reaching and some- 
times universal changes that direct us unerringly to the 
tellurio-cosmic matter of primitive times.* Before we 
close this chapter let us examine one more feature. 

At the base of the silurian is a well-known forma- 
tion in America known as the Potsdam sandstone, and 
in Europe as the lingula flag. This is claimed to be 
the product of the retiring waves after the archsean 
upheaval; or the advancing waves of an encroaching 
ocean. Were I to advance the claim that this entire 



*The cretaceous beds of chalk are made up of microscopic or- 
ganisms, strikingly similar to those found in dust showers and 
colored snows, and could not have been derived from terrestrial 
beds. Hence, I see no escape from the conclusion that the chalk 
beds and their organisms were derived from the annular system. 
It would also seem that the flint and other concretionary forms 
therein had the same origin, and the claim that that system was 
the seed-bed of organism becomes wellgrounded. 



248 The Earth's Annular System. 

deposit was rather the wreck of rings than the wreck 
of continents, mj readers might think it was rather 
the wreck or spoils of intellect. But look at the vast- 
ness of this formation. It underlies the silurian of the 
world. It spreads from Canada to Texas, and from the 
AUeghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and for all we 
know it is a casement surrounding the world. Waves 
must have had this stupendous wreck to work upon, 
or they could never, so I think, have laid such a general 
bed over the continents. The whole mass shows pre- 
eminently a mechanical and rapid accumulation. All 
that is required for this wonderful outspread of silicious 
beds over the continents is a telluric ring of silicious 
matter, in which was an opportunity, nowhere else 
afforded, for granulation and the growth of concretion- 
ary structures and infusorial germs. Indeed, if the 
countless millions of aerolites that reach the earth's sur- 
face can form in interplanetary and interstellar space 
into solid stones and pebble-like forms, what reason can 
be shown that a ring of vapors surrounding a world 
once melted and glowing, — a world in whose inveterate 
fires silicious matter was vaporized and made to com- 
mingle with the vapors of the ring system, — I say what 
reason can oppose the idea that these silicious vapors 
did not strongly impregnate the aqueous vapors and 
call in its life-germs at that time since they were both 
in the system together ? But if in the system together 
they must have separated and segregated as the system 
condensed into granular, crystalline and concretionary 
forms, the very materials in the stupendous outspread 
at the base of the silurian system. 

Let it be distinctly understood that the annular 
theory admits the universal eroding powers of rivers and 



Evidence Advanced. 249 

waves; the transportation power of currents and the 
continental process of strata-building from detrital mat- 
ter. But with all this admitted, the wave of ocean can 
do nothing in this line of work unless it is supplied with 
matter with which to work, and the simple question is, 
Where did the wave get this crystalline and granulated 
and infusorial matter to spread over the floor of the 
Silurian ocean ? An ocean so far as the accompanying 
strata show was spread over the American continent at 
the time of its deposition. It underlies, so far as our 
information shows, the whole continent of N'orth Amer- 
ica, ^ow it is altogether out of reason to suppose that 
this wonderful mass is a detrital formation worn from 
surrounding continents unless we admit that every foot 
of it was a playground of shore waves, either advanc- 
ing or receding. But we cannot find that there was, 
either before or after, a continent here surrounded by 
such an ocean. We can, however, find a fund of silicious 
matter all adequate and necessary in world-making, — 
a fund that existed before a wave ever washed the 
earth, and which must be found in the earth's crust. 
When it fell with the descending waters we can con- 
ceive how naturally it would form a world-wide bed of 
matter. I presume no man who is led to admit the 
former existence of a great primitive aqueous envelope 
surrounding the earth will for a moment hesitate to 
admit that those primitive vapors did contain calcar- 
eous, silicious, carbonaceous and metalliferous regions 
consistent and favorable to some forms of life-germs, 
and that when the ring segments fell to the earth these 
very substances spread over the ocean's floor as indi- 
vidual beds. We have seen the great metallic beds in 
the foundation rocks of the continents just where we 



250 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

T\^oiild expect to find them according to annular ar- 
rangement with primordial forms. We have found 
great primitive calcareous beds in harmony with this 
order; and when we take a comprehensive glance at the 
Potsdam beds and their kindred and co-temporaneous 
beds under other names, spreading as a coarse mechani- 
cal deposit over so much of the known world, what 
philosophy can be urged in support of the claim that all 
parts of this wide expanse have successively been the 
ocean's playground of shore-waves ? Thus we find that 
our theory leads to astounding conclusions. The 
ocean's waters have built numberless beds of limestone 
through the instrumentality of marine organisms, but 
the annular waters supplied the builders with materials 
and set them to work. Vast beds of metals have been 
laid down from the ocean's waters as regular stratified 
deposits, which could never have been borne from arch- 
sean terranes, and must therefore have been supplied 
from the only other source, — the primitive vapors that 
we know contained them. All over the world, in all 
times subsequent to the archaean, great sand beds have 
been formed, and these originally came from the annu- 
lar fund. But let it be remembered that while this 
must have been the original source of these materials, 
the ocean's waves have never ceased to work upon the 
wreck of rings, devouring the original beds and trans- 
ferring them to other lands. Eivers wherever they 
ran have eroded with resistless appetite, and fed the 
ocean with its own beds formed again and again. I 
freely admit that this work has progressed from that 
early day when the first ocean baptized the infant earth; 
but in addition to all this great labor of tearing down 
and rebuilding, a hundred times or more the annular 



Evidence Advanced. 251 

waters have descended, and in their rush to the seas 
have laid mechanical beds of materials torn from mil- 
lions of valleys, which could never have been otherwise 
formed, and at the same time added their own fund of 
exotic matter to these beds. Exotic matter of all 
kinds — lime, iron, sulphur, salt, etc., etc. — have hereby 
entered into the various formations of the later ages. 
We have seen in almost all lands great beds of iron 
in the mechanical deposits of later ages. In the hills 
of my own State and country are stupendous masses of 
iron ore — true sedimentary formations, more than 400 
miles distant from any primitive metallic beds. Tell 
me, how was this metallic matter carried from older 
beds and deposited here ? If I am told that it was the 
product of organic distillation I must demur, and the 
rocks themselves are my witnesses. If told that the 
annular system was permeated by metallic dust, and 
that as it reached the earth in almost all lands beyond 
the tropics, we can readily understand why there is so 
much metallic ore of lighter specific gravity in the 
more recent geologic strata; and when I turn and see 
these beds more abundant in regions outside of the 
tropics, where upper matter must have fallen, if it ever 
fell, and when I reflect that if these ores had been a veg- 
etable product they ought to be more abundant within 
the tropics where vegetation is most abundant, I am 
led to conclude that much of the iron ores of the car- 
boniferous beds had an annular origin. 

Suppose a grand decline of annular matter from near 
the middle of the system should occur. Where would 
we expect to see its effects ? If they were registered 
in the rocky volume, would we not expect to find them 
in that geological horizon embracing the later devon- 



252 The Earth's Annular System. 

ian, the carboniferous, etc., perhaps extending into the 
cretaceous? Since then we would expect to find the 
very heaviest matter in the innermost rings, and the 
very lightest in the outermost, and having found this 
heavy matter in the first formed beds, and the lightest 
prevailing in the latest, we must expect to find this mid- 
horizon characterized by a more abundant supply of 
matter of medium specific gravity from the middle of 
the annular system. We certainly would not expect 
to find the salts of soda and lime largely developed in 
the same annular region with iron, lead, silver, copper, 
etc., nor on the other hand would we expect to find 
these salts to much extent developed in the latest 
formed beds. The last descending vapors must have 
been nearly free from these. But where in the geo- 
logic column do we find such substances more largely 
deposited? In this mid-empire of the ages! Where 
are the salt and gypsum formations of the world ? Even 
those on the very surface of the earth, as in the Rocky 
Mountain region, have been derived from beds of these 
middle ages. I am sure a full history of these medial 
formations, when written, will present this philosophic 
order of original deposition, and that all more recent 
beds may be traced to these first deposits. Enough is 
already known to show this order; this intelligent plan 
laid in the earth's primitive envelope. Can we at most 
show any reasonable method by which the oceans of 
medial ages obtained these salts from the primitive 
beds, even if they were known to contain them ? 

And now when we take into consideration the reliable 
statements of Arctic explorers of the existence of salt 
beds, salt marshes, etc., in polar lands, where, above all, 
we would expect to find the least, according to the old 



Evidence Advanced. 253 

theory, and the greatest quantities, according to the 
new, what can be urged against the claims here set 
forth? These are the considerations that will bring 
the annular theory to the test. To these I freely sub- 
mit it. 

Thus the annular system, the great seed-bed of organ- 
isms, in its final wreck and new arrangement in the 
super-crust, not only becomes a self-supporting argu- 
ment of an intelligent plan in strata-building, but it 
affords the key that unlocks the deepest mysteries of 
organic evolution in the measureless ages of the past. 
If men of this age refuse to use this key, other men will 
gladly embrace the opportunity when we are in our 
graves. My chief desire is that some persons more 
competent than I am may take these things here pre- 
sented in their rude state, and prepare them for the 
majestic building which the faultless Architect has 
planned, and who is calling for builders. 

Can these be overdrawn conclusions? What do the 
great " gaps " and " missing links '' in the record mean 
— these evolutions of life-forms brought up to a certain 
limit, then a cessation, then a leap forward on the plane 
of progress ? If we admit that each ring-section neces- 
sarily held its own peculiar life-germs, and each suc- 
ceeding one germs one step nearer perfection in the 
goal of life, as demanded by their position in the sys- 
tem, how the confusion vanishes ! How harmonious 
the gradation, from the moneron of the first or primi- 
tive life element in the dark deep of chaos, to the 
grand platform of physical light and life ! If we spurn 
these conclusions, where do we stand ? Spurn them, 
and we are compelled to admit either numberless 
specific and especial creations, or a most unreasonable 



254 The Earth's Annular System. 

and unphilosophic evolution of one species from an- 
other. Keject these conclusions, and we will then be 
forced to admit that all the multifarious forms of life 
now on the earth, including man, were planted poten- 
tially in organisms of the archaean waters ; and further, 
that this plan of evolution was so directed by the Crea- 
tive Hand that it stopped short again and again, and 
started again upon a loftier platform of life — i.e., with 
new forms, only to stop and leap again. Which line of 
evolution will the reader choose: That which carries 
the whale from the rhizopod of the primitive seas over 
numerous breaks in the line, or that which leads it to 
perfection from its own original life-germ planted in its 
own soil ? Is it not more reasonable, and in the line of 
law, that man should arise from his own especial or- 
ganisms in his own environment, a germ of God^s right- 
hand planting, than that he should descend from the 
little moneron of the eozoic seas by innumerable sud- 
den starts through countless millions of years in the 
specific organisms of a thousand environments, as the 
oyster, the ammonite, the fish, the bird, the ape, etc., 
etc., to the illustrious Darwin ? I am not willing to ad- 
mit that that great man, to whose memory the world 
owes a debt it cannot pay, came through such a line of 
descent when a more philosophic and intelligent one is 
open to my view. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A CONSIDERATION OF THE EVIDENCE THAT INEVITABLY 
LEADS TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE CARBON STRATA 
OF THE WORLD WERE DEPOSITED AS AN AQUEOUS 
SEDIMENT FROM THE EARTH's ANNULAR SYSTEM 
WHERE IT HAD REMAINED FOR COUNTLESS 
AGES AS A PRIMITIVE DISTILLATION, 
EXPELLED FROM THE INCANDES- 
CENT OR BURNING EARTH. 

In millions of bogs and swamp marshes in the north- 
ern part of the Northern Hemisphere the decay of a 
characteristic vegetation gives rise to carbonaceous beds 
of matter called peat. This peat when placed in the 
retort of the gas furnace, and subjected to heat, as in 
the manufacture of burning gas, may be made to give 
rise to various products or distillations, from the heavy 
form of graphite and asphaltum to the lighter forms of 
oily hydro-carbons, such as are found in the earth's 
sedimentary crust, under various names, and chiefly as 
stone coal, or simply coal. It was very natural for the 
philosopher to conclude that the coal strata of the 
earth were mineralized or metamorphosed vegetation, 
since it was well-known that peat, subjected to the 
proper treatment, might be made to yield these pro- 
ducts. And as there is now no other terrestrial means 
than rock pressure, and the native heat of the planet's 
crust, adequate to produce these products, men were 
honestly led to the conclusion, which now prevails, that 
the coal beds of the world are of vegetable origin. It 
will thus be seen that I admit — that all men must ad- 



256 The EarWs Annular System. 

mit — that vegetation, when the necessary conditions are 
present, must become a mineralized carbon fuel. To 
conclude otherwise would be a fraction of inexorable 
law. Hence no future criticism upon the theory I shall 
presently advance would be in order upon this branch 
of the question, since I am forced to stand upon the 
self-same foundation that all scientists must stand upon. 

But standing upon this foundation we must erect an 
edifice in harmony therewith. We must not allow a 
stone to enter the structure that has not been squared 
and dressed by the Master Hand of Law. Stones, lying 
ready prepared in the vast quarry of nature, must be 
our building material. 

Then with the full understanding that the slow com- 
bustion in a swamp marsh or peat bog under favorable 
conditions gives rise to fuel carbon of various degrees 
of mineralization, we will begin our examination of this 
momentous problem. 

First: It will be fully conceded by every scientific 
and philosophic mind that the natural change of vege- 
table organisms to the form of elementary products in 
peat formation is a combustion, or slow distillation, by 
which the elements of the compounds forming the body 
of the plant are dissociated and made to pass into other 
forms. And in which combustion carbon particles re- 
leased from their associations remain in an unburnt con- 
dition. In other words, the carbon comprising the peat 
bed is simply unconsumed carbon. 

Second: This unconsumed carbon product of swamp 
combustion is the same as the unconsumed carbon of 
any other combustion or distillation in which the car- 
bon element is involved, under whatever circumstances 
said combustion takes place. 




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Consideration of the Evidence. 257 

These are, as all can see, self-evident propositions — 
propositions to which we are all irretrievably commit- 
ted, and I want the reader to see that we diverge not 
from this in our line of argument. I ask my brother 
geologists to give me their attention for one hour; and 
I will give them in return for their kindness a theory 
of coal formation planted upon this rock. A theory 
that must be true from the very nature of the problem, 
and which, if true, must explain every difficulty in- 
volved therein. 

From these considerations it is manifestly certain that 
the combustion that takes place in a stove or fire-place 
is precisely similar, except in intensity, to that which 
evolves unconsumed carbon from swamp vegetation, 
and that the unconsumed carbon that arises from our 
chimneys and locomotives in the form of smoke is the 
same carbon element which, resulting from the decay 
of peat vegetation, sinks to the bottom of the marsh. 
The processes are necessarily parallel, producing the 
same elementary changes and the same products. 

One process deposits its unburnt carbon in the bog, 
where it is sealed away from that universal devourer,. 
oxygen, and where it remains a veritable fuel. The 
other process sends its unburnt carbon into the air, — 
into an ocean of oxygen, a veritable fuel, which is im- 
mediately re-burnt and converted into invisible carbonic 
anhydride by its union with this free oxygen of the air.. 
If no oxygen were in the air ready to seize upon this 
carbon fuel, the atmosphere would in a short time be-^ 
come filled with it, and as it became saturated with the 
moisture with which it comes in contact it would set-^ 
tie upon the earth as carbon-dust — a veritable fuel, the 
very same in kind that is sealed in the peat bog. Some 



258 The Earth's Annular System. 

portion of the unburnt carbon which arises in oiir fire- 
places does actually escape this devourer, and adheres 
to the back wall, chimney or stove-pipe as an nncon- 
sumed carbon product — a veritable fuel, which takes 
fire and burns as every one will admit. Who has not 
seen the " chimney on fire ? '' Who has not seen the 
oily carbon on the back wall where wood or bituminous 
coal is burnt take fire and burn — thus proving to 
every beholder the unavoidable conclusion that the car- 
bon or smoke that arises from every chinmey and fur- 
nace of the earth when measurably shut up from imme- 
diate union with oxygen remains an unburnt fuel, pre- 
cisely the same in kind as the unburnt carbon fuel of 
the peat bog ? 

If we were to collect the unburnt carbon from our 
chimneys into piles, where moisture and air could have 
free access, it would take fire spontaneously and burn; 
as it is well known that many a disastrous fire has oc- 
curred from this source alone ; just as peat dug from the 
bog sometimes takes fire spontaneously. 

Thus in every particular the smoke that arises from 
every combustion in which carbon is an element is an 
exact counterpart of the carbon arising from the decay 
of swamp or peat vegetation, and hence we are com- 
pelled to accept this conclusion: that the millions of 
fires, foundries and volcanoes of the globe that pour im- 
measurable volumes of unconsumed carbon into the at- 
mosphere are forming fuel wherever soot is formed; 
and that if it were not for the ever-active oxygen of 
the air it would all descend upon the earth as a fuel, 
and become incorporated in the forming sedimentary 
beds of the earth as such, and under favorable circum- 
stances it would be collected by water currents into 



Consideration of the Evidence. 259 

beds of fuel ! Here, then, just as we are entering the 
threshold of the coal question, while starting commit- 
ted to the fact of peat formation, we are driven by the 
implacable demands of law to the conclusion that there 
is another and a parallel process producing the very 
same effects! How can we possibly avoid the conclu- 
sion, then, that if a terrestrial fund of rising smoke 
should be in sufficient quantities, and should arise^ 
amidst a fund of aqueous vapors beyond the reach of 
the devourer oxygen, that all the coal beds of the earth 
could have been formed by that returning fund ? There 
is no avenue of escape from this conclusion! 

Our next duty, then, is apparent. If the coal beds of 
the world were not formed by a process of vegetable 
decay, they were, in whole or in part, formed by this 
parallel process ! And we must now proceed to show 
that although a fuel carbon is necessarily formed when 
vegetable decay is arrested in a swamp marsh, yet this 
decay or combustion is so complete that the products 
are utterly inadequate to form great continental coal 
strata. When we shall have shown this we will pro- 
ceed to show that an immeasurable fund of unconsumed 
carbon, or simply smoke, went up from the igneous 
earth for countless ages, pouring a vast fund of fuel 
carbon into the primitive vapors that surrounded the 
burning and incandescent sphere, and which fell with 
those vapors from our annular system, and floating 
away into the ocean settled upon its floor, with the 
vegetation involved. 

Men to-day are in the habit of pointing to peat bog 
distillation of carbon as the origin of coal in its earliest 
formation. This is only one more illustration of the 
universal disposition of the human mind to accept con- 



260 The Earth's Annular System. 

elusions drawn immediately from appearances only. 
Such illusory evidence has more than once involved 
some of the sublimest truths in the deepest clouds. 

When the plant dies and begins to decay one of its 
constituent elements, carbon, oxidizes in a process of 
slow combustion, and returns to the air as an invisible 
gas. i^ow it is only when as by accident a particle of 
this carbon fails to become oxidized that it remains 
as an unconsumed atom, and then by accident becomes 
sealed away from oxygen, ever alert and active. It is 
therefore an exceedingly small part of the world's vege- 
tation that is left as unburnt fuel in peat bogs. Let 
us not forget that this swamp combustion is precisely 
that which takes place in every furnace and fire-place 
on earth (time being left out of the account). Just as 
a very small part of the smoke ascending from the 
coke oven or volcano is left and formed into a fuel, and 
fails to combine with the oxygen of the air, and con- 
sequently adds but an infinitesimal amount to the un- 
consumed carbon of the earth, so is it with vegetable 
decay. ]N"ow we all will admit that all the carbon in 
the earth's crust was derived in a primitive distillation 
from the mineral world that originally contained it. 
Were it not for this primitive process an atom of peat 
carbon could never have been found; for the plant 
could never have obtained it. The formation of peat 
carbon, then, is at most a secondary process; and who 
will fail to see that if through vegetation and peat alone 
carbon or coal had its origin, then the primitive pro- 
cess is entirely ignored ? But every man of reason 
must own that the very primitive process that gave car- 
bon to the primitive atmosphere for the use of the plant 
gave it forth in the same form that the plant itseK does 



Consideration of the Evidence. 261 

— as an unconsumed carbon fuel ! Why, then, should 
the earth in after times institute a secondary process 
to produce the fuel form of carbon it already had 
formed by the primitive process ? Then I repeat that 
on the very threshold of the coal problem we find that 
we are forced by unyielding law to admit that there 
was a stupendous fund of fuel carbon produced by a 
process parallel to peat distillation, but previous to it 
in time. In short, there is no way of escaping the con- 
clusion that every atom of carbon in the coal beds of 
the earth, even if they were wholly a vegetable product, 
was previously produced from the mineral earth by an 
original process. Consequently the discussion of this 
problem in the very beginning demands serious consid- 
eration from men of thought. 

It cannot but be then that a secondary and fortui- 
tous process of fuel making must fall behind the 
original one in importance. As in the great supply of 
lime to the primitive ocean there was a call and de- 
mand for organisms to use up the surplus of calcareous 
matter in aqueous solution after the beds were precipi- 
tated, so after the deposit of the fuel carbon was 
there a demand from the earliest ages for vegetation to 
use the surplus carbon in the atmosphere. But what 
a puny process compared with that grand sublimation 
and distillation in the igneous earth ! 

But let us admit that by some unseen and fortuitous 
means the original carbon fuel was afterwards meta- 
morphosed into plant food, and was eventually retrans- 
formed into fuel. Let us admit this just to see how we 
can come to the erudite conclusion that coal is a vege- 
table product. On this supposition every atom of car- 
bon in the carbon-beds of the world has existed in the 



262 The Earth's Annular System. 

air, or elsewhere, in union with oxygen as an invisible 
gas (carbonic anhydride). For in this form alone 
can it enter into the economy of the plant. But to in- 
sure this production of plant food the carbon, as it is- 
sued from the fires of the igneous earth, must have 
been poured into an ocean of free oxygen. For if this 
were not the case the carbon still remained an unburnt 
fuel, which the plant could not use. I^ow while it is 
very unphilosophic to suppose an ocean of free oxygen 
attending an igneous or incandescent world, it is also 
susceptible of the plainest proof that if all the oxygen 
in the super-crust had been present in the primitive at- 
mosphere it could not have saturated the carbon of the 
coal measures. Then, again, if this remaining unburnt 
carbon ever afterwards became plant food, in order to 
produce coal, it did so through the process of spontan- 
eous combustion, after it had been once formed in the 
presence of oxygen and sealed away from its ravages. 
But if this be true, how does it happen that the very 
same unburnt carbon, in the form of peat, having the 
same opportunity to spontaneously burn, does not also 
undergo the same change ? The conclusion, then, is in- 
evitable that unburnt carbon fuel of the igneous era 
was stored away in the earth's crust. And if not still 
there has suffered spontaneous combustion, and has 
been again converted into fuel, which cannot spontan- 
eously burn, which is simply preposterous and absurd. 
The fact that the carbon in the peat beds of the earth 
has not thus disappeared is substantial evidence that 
the combustible unconsumed carbon of the igneous era 
did not, since they were necessarily the same in kind. 
!N'ow where are we "? The advocate of the vegetable 
origin of coal is compelled to hang upon one horn of 



Consideration of the Evidence. 263 

this dilemma, or both, if he choose. If he advocate the 
existence of a universal sea of free oxygen around the 
igneous earth, then he must admit that there were no 
residual carbon products, and we will grant this con- 
clusion, for argument's sake. 

]^o residual carbon products mean no primitive car- 
bon beds, and that all coal beds are mineralized vegeta- 
tion. But these necessitate an ocean of oxygen. Let us 
grant this. But this forces us to the conclusion that 
immediately after the igneous era and during all the 
ages from the archsean to the later tertiary there ex- 
isted about the earth a universal sea of plant food (car- 
bonic anhydride). Dana, seeing this inevitable con- 
clusion, says: " The atmosphere now contains less car- 
bonic acid than it did at the beginning of the carbon- 
iferous period by the amount stored away in the coal 
of the globe," and yet the same high authority says 
" much more carbonic acid [than now exists in the air] 
would be injurious to animal life." * 

I must take a little time to examine this, remember- 
ing that even during the carboniferous era, air breath- 
ing and water breathing animals existed in abundance ;f 
remembering that water is a great absorbent of carbonic 
acid, and that ^^ much more carbonic acid " than exists 
now in the atmosphere would kill every mammal, fish, 
bird or salamander on the earth. 

Admitting that every foot of the earth's surface sup- 
ports an amount of oxygen equal in weight to at least 
420 pounds, as the best authorities teach, and allowing 
a cubic foot of coal to weigh YO pounds, considerably be- 
low the average, and the average of charcoals as 10 

* Read Dana's " Manual " from page 340 to 353. 
t See Dawson's "Acadian Geol." 



264 The Earth's Annular System. 

pounds per cubic foot, and taking the conclusion of 
chemists that a bushel of charcoal will yield 2,500 gal- 
lons of carbonic acid, we find one cubic foot or ten 
pounds of charcoal will yield a little more than 2,000 
gallons. JSTow a cubic foot of coal yields from 40 to 60 
pounds of carbon; we will put the average at 50 pounds 
of pure carbon. Then it is plain that if 10 pounds, or 
one cubic foot of charcoal, or nearly pure carbon, will 
yield 2,000 gallons of carbonic acid, that 50 pounds will 
yield five times as much, or ten thousand gallons, and 
a column ten feet high and one foot square will yield 
ten times as much, or 100,000 gallons. Then calling 
eight gallons equal to one cubic foot, it would make a 
column of carbonic acid 12,500 feet high and one foot 
square. Here, then, is revealed the astounding fact 
that if all the coal of the earth (including the graphitic 
coals of the archaean, etc.) combined would make a bed 
of pure carbon 10 feet thick around the earth, it actual- 
ly drew from the atmosphere an ocean of carbonic acid 
12,500 feet deep extending around the entire sphere. 
I^ow if my hypothetic vein of 10 feet be not an exag- 
geration, this is at least the amount of carbonic acid the 
carboniferous atmosphere contained more than it now 
does. 

According to Youman there is enough carbonic acid 
in our atmosphere to make an ocean only 13 feet deep. 
And eminent physiologists say that three or four per 
cent, of the present atmosphere in the shape of carbonic 
acid would be fatal to life. 

But is my estimate of the hypothetic coal vein of 10 
feet too high ? Is there enough carbon in the coal beds 
to make a world stratum ten feet thick? Late discov- 
eries of coal in almost all lands outside of the torrid 



Consideration of the Evidence. 265 

zone would induce me rather to increase than diminish 
the estimate. Taking the vast coal fields of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, Texas, and the great region of the Cor- 
dilleras, I presume one-fourth part of the United States 
is underlain with coal veins varying from 1 foot to 25 
feet. In Pennsylvania it will aggregate over 40 feet 
in thickness. In Eastern Ohio it will reach almost the 
same thickness. In Eastern Pennsylvania a single vein 
sometimes attains the thickness of 30 feet, v/ith from 
7 to 10 massive veins. In ISTova Scotia there are more 
than 70 veins; one of these is 38 feet thick, another 15, 
and another 12. In Great Britain there are at least 
100 coal veins, amounting, it is said, to a thickness of 
300 feet. In France are coal veins 100 and 120 feet 
thick. When we turn to the vast coal fields of Asia 
and Southern Africa, South America and Australia, 
Alaska and Greenland, and then count in the calcula- 
tion the vast beds of carboniferous shales and oil-bear- 
ing strata of carboniferous limestone, and remember 
that Dr. Dawson has said that there is likely as much 
carbon in the archsean rocks as in any subsequent for- 
mation, and that these beds are world-wide, I think we 
need not diminish our 10 foot seam. 

But lest the reader may think that I am claiming too 
much I will diminish this stratum to five feet, and we 
will yet have an ocean of carbonic anhydride more than 
six thousand feet deep. Or if I am compelled to re- 
duce it to one-half this much we will have more than 
3,000 feet, or three times as much as Youman's four 
per cent., or two hundred and forty times as much car- 
bonic acid as now exists in the air. And yet Dana's 
fishes and amphibians survived ! ! 

N^o wonder that a modern chemist, investigating 



26 G The EartWs Annular System. 

these measureless carbon beds, came to the conclusion 
that there is not enough oxygen in the air and crust of 
the earth combined to saturate the carbon of the coal 
veins without the deoxidation of its salts and ores.* 

Hence it is plain that there could not have been such 
an ocean of plant food. The existence of breathing 
animals in the very midst of the coal-forming period 
forbids it. The simple fact that at the very time the 
primitive carbon was being distilled in a burning world 
the oxygen under chemical law had a choice in com- 
bining with other elements present in the great alem- 
bic, forbids it. We are, therefore, left without the 
slightest chance to oppose the claim that the primitive 
fires in the molten earth did produce measureless 
quantities of fuel carbon, and which has always re- 
mained such. Where is it ? 

Xow as the formation of fuel in a swamp is the same 
as that in every fire-place, foundry, furnace and solfa- 
tara on earth, and both secondary processes producing 
secondary products, and as the latter, as all must ad- 
mit, is utterly powerless to add materially to the fuel 
forms of the earth as coal, so must the former be power- 
less to add greatly to coal formation. 

If there be so much as one feature of the coal prob- 
lem which the primitive carbon theory fails to explain 
after a fair test, then it must be a failure. It is then 
with the utmost confidence that I prepare it, knowing 
that according to eternal law we shall find beds of 
primitive fuel carbon in the earth. I will now in as 
brief a manner as possible specify some conditions that 
must prevail in the coal beds as decisive tests: 

First: As the annular system was without doubt a 

• Phin's " Six Days of Creation," page 66. 



Consideration of the Evidence. 2G7 

region of microscopic life and infusorial forms, I pre- 
sume a coal bed must be largely characterized through- 
out its mass by the presence of microscopic organisms. 
While, at the same time, being a deposit from sea 
waters, it must have carried down organic forms exist- 
ing in those waters, and remaining for a while lying 
upon the sea bottom before it became covered up by 
other beds, it must have become as other oceanic ooze, 
more characteristically marine upon its surface (in ma- 
rine waters) than in other parts of its bed. 

Second: These carbon sediments must have borne 
down a vast amount of marine vegetation, and buried 
it upon the sea bottom, and must also have accumu- 
lated in beds on the land surface, but here only in the 
lowest region — i.e., in swamp marshes — and here the 
involved vegetation would be different, the marine 
character being largely absent. 

Third: Where a carbon-fall was borne to the seas, 
that part of it which settled where limestone strata pre- 
vail would indicate great distance from the shore, and 
here the roof shales of the coal seams must be meas- 
urably free from land fossils. While coal beds among 
intercalated sand strata would indicate deposits nearer 
shore, and here the roof -covering of the coal beds would 
likely be more truly mechanical beds, or at least con- 
tain land fossils to a more liberal extent. 

Fourth: As all downfalls from the annular system 
must take place more largely in regions distant from 
the equator, the coal beds must be more heavily devel- 
oped toward the polar regions than elsewhere. Those 
located nearest the poles must be the nearest free from 
terrestrial or marine impurities, and yet with such im- 
purities eliminated must be specifically heavier; while 



268 The EarWs Annular System. 

those floating farthest from the region of downfall 
toward the equator, or into bays and gulfs of the ocean, 
would contain a greater amount of impurities or ash, 
and with the ash eliminated would be specifically 
lighter. 

Fifth: All carbon downfalls must have been attended 
by great cataclysms of snow or water, or both, and 
more likely than otherwise the periods of coal accumu- 
lations were those essentially indicative of violence, if 
not of cold. 

Sixth: While a bituminous coal vein deposited in 
regions subject to volcanic strains and mechanical heat 
arising therefrom, would necessarily be metamorphosed 
into heavier and harder carbon forms, as into anthra- 
cite, etc., yet as there must have been all the light and 
heavy forms of carbon in the annular system, as primi- 
tive distillates, it is certain that all these forms of car- 
bon may be found in lands where no strata disturbance 
has taken place. 

Seventh : When a carbon-fall took place, and the car- 
bon was borne to the deep seas, the heavy carbon such 
as the anthracite and semi-bituminous particles would 
settle in the deep ocean, while the lighter, not being 
able to reach bottom, would float to shallower waters 
and settle as lighter coals, and according to this view 
a submarine valley might have a deposit of anthracite 
carbon, while a neighboring bed on an ^elevation might 
be a bituminous deposit. 

Eighth: These facts must lead us to the inevitable 
conclusion that in both the ^N^orthern and Southern 
Hemispheres the coals must be more valuable as we 
proceed from the equator, and the least valuable coals 
must, as a rule, be nearest the equator, and also in 



Consideration of the Evidence. 269 

smaller quantities. I will offer this as a decisive test, if 
the reader choose. 

Ninth : As there must have been carbon disseminated 
throughout the annular system there must have been 
carbon-falls in all ages! And the earliest falls neces- 
sarily the heaviest and purest, and the last falls of car- 
bon must have been the lightest and of the poorest 
quality; and if any downfalls from the annular system 
have occurred in recent times then this light carbon 
must be found on the very surface of the earth, and im- 
bedded in the snows that fell with them in the polar 
regions, and must also form the foundation of recent 
peat formations in cooler regions. 

Now some of these points I have not had time or 
opportunity to investigate fully. But I propose them 
with the utmost confidence, for all must see that they 
are legitimate conclusions, and men of science can by 
these confirm the theory or hurl them with deadly effect 
against it if they are not true. They are all important 
and decisive tests. The ninth or last embraces a vol- 
ume in itself, and I regret that I have so little space 
in this to consider it. I have elsewhere referred to 
the vast reaches of carbonite spread over so much of 
the Northern Hemisphere, but it is important that the 
peat bog question should be settled before we venture 
far into the coal problem. We will attempt to settle 
it now. 

Why is this carbonite covering confined so exclu- 
sively to regions glaciated and submerged during the 
last reign of ice and flood ? To go back a little in or- 
der of time, why are the terraces that were built up by 
the flood-waters of the retiring glaciers in the ungla- 
ciated valleys so frequently characterized by the pres- 



270 The Earth's Annular System. 

ence of carbonite called " peat," " lignite," etc. ? I3 
it not a demonstrable fact, for instance, that the great 
terrace beds of the Ohio and Mississippi Eivers were 
carried by floods from the glaciated regions of the Great 
Central Basin? And are we not compelled to admit 
that the so-called lignite seams or peat bands in those 
terraces were also borne from the same basin? Then 
they must have come from the melting glaciers or fund 
of snows! These carbonite streaks, plainly visible in 
the Mississippi embankments from Yicksburg to the 
mouth of the Ohio, and planted deeply beneath the 
waters of the lower Mississippi at !^ew Orleans, were 
formed as the flood deposits were formed, and must 
have been borne by the same waters that carried the 
body of the terraces themselves. 

I have shown how this vast spread of carbonite was 
the result of the last great debacle of snow and floods. 
It is evident that if this black carbonaceous deposit 
were covered up, as the lignites and peat of the valleys 
of Europe, Asia and America are, it would be called 
lignite or peat, and no man would question the infer- 
ence. But it does lie at the bottom of thousands of 
lakes and ponds. It has been dredged from the waters 
of the northern oceans, and the dredge will surely bring 
it from the Great Lakes, from Hudson Bay, and from 
the Arctic Ocean. 

But in thousands, nay, millions of these ponds and 
swamps grows a so-called peat vegetation. And this is 
the question we must now endeavor to solve. Peat- 
bog vegetation or moss, known by the generic name of 
Sphagnimi, is characteristic of the swamp, and grows 
only where peat is forming — a circumstance which 
alone should teach us to look back beyond the era of 



Consideration of the Evidence. 271 

vegetation for its origin. It is plain that if no peat 
(carbonite) had originally and previously been de- 
posited where the plant now grows, it would never have 
grown there. As the millepore and its kindred organ- 
isms would never have lived and flourished in the seas 
if lime had not previously existed there as the food, so 
neither could any of the sphagnous mosses have planted 
themselves over the medial and colder latitudes of the 
earth, if the carbon beds necessary to sustain them had 
not been previously planted there. As we are forced 
to look beyond the era of oceanic organisms into the 
annular system for a primitive supply of lime, so we 
must also look beyond the plant through the igneous 
and smoking world into the earth's primitive envelope 
for the food that called the peat vegetation into exist- 
ence. 

N'ow as we simply know that unconsumed carbon did 
€xist in the annular system, and that its lightest forms 
were the last to descend upon the earth, not in the equa- 
torial regions, but nearer the polar world, and since we 
£nd such an enormous outspread of such carbon not in 
the tropics but in the colder regions, accompanied by 
the plant demanded by its existence, how can we avoid 
the philosophic conclusion that if there had not been a 
downfall of carbonite in the very last geological epoch, 
the sphagnous vegetation would not now exist there ? 

As the marine organisms came into existence after 
their food was supplied to the seas, and began their sub- 
sequent work of rock making, and are thus employed 
to-day, so the peat vegetation came and began its offices 
of peat making after its food was supplied, and is thus 
employed to-day. Then it must be apparent to every 
man of reason that peat vegetation now forming a sec- 



272 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

ondary product of carbon is our first and unimpeachable 
Tvdtness of the primitive and annular origin of coal. 
There is no reason why peat vegetation should not grow 
more abundantly in the tropics than in colder regions, 
if the carbonite or sphagnum food existed there. There 
is every reason for believing that if coal is a vegetable 
product it should more abundantly exist in the equa- 
torial regions. Does not the vegetation theory demand 
this ? Why, then, are the great carbon formations 
planted where the annular theory demands that they 
should be found, and not where the vegetarian wants to 
find them ? Is it not plain that if such beds of coal ex- 
isted under the equator, as are found in zones of eternal 
ice, that our theory could not be supported thereby? 
The presence of every coal bed in the polar world is 
an eloquent testimony against the current theory. The 
coal was planted where it affords the vegetarian no con- 
solation. But with what an air of triumph could he 
point to it, if it were planted within the tropics, the 
very home of vegetation ! 

If we could by any means change the character of 
the bed of peat, the vegetation would languish and die, 
and another species of peat plant would succeed. This 
is abundantly proven by the fact that where lime 
waters or marine waters saturate the peat-bed, other 
species of sphagnima flourish and form other kinds of 
carbon. Thus we see that law leads us directly away 
from the current theory. The law that guides the 
acaleph of the sea guides the sphagnum of the bog. 
Each had its food supplied before it flourished in its own 
habitat. Each is to-day continuing the process of 
strata-building. But we must call it a secondary and 




Fig. 11. JUPITER. (Rings Fallen.) 

Jupiter, the King of Planets, is very likely an inhabited world. 
But what must be the canopy forms that are to-day directing 
thought and intellect on such a world? The face of Jupiter here 
presented was seen several years ago, but here are some forms 
that we cannot fail to recognize in the legendary annals of earth. 
J can only allude to Leda and the egg, which, under the power of 
Jove, the true sky, brought forth the "twins," day and night 
(Castor and Pollux), a problem that Max Miiller well-nigh solved. 



Consideration of the Evidence. 273 

puny work, indeed, compared with the original and 
primitive one. 

If a colony of ants build a mound a foot high, must 
we conclude that Mont Blanc is an ant hill ? 

If the hickory, the ash, the pine and the lycopod 
must each have its peculiar foundation soil, previously 
laid down, before it can take root and flourish, so must 
the sphagnum and the hypnum of the marsh. The 
pipsissiwa must have its shade; the epiphegus must have 
its beech tree, or it will not grow, and the bog moss 
must have its carbon bed as surely as it must have its 
air before it could begin its offices. And further, the 
succession of species and tribes of plants in the geologic 
ages as clearly demands a succession of downfalls of an- 
nular matter as the other witness in the record. 

Having then, as I think, planted the primitive car- 
bon problem upon the rock of philosophic law, or rather 
having found it planted thereon, we will next examine 
the ipse dixit of the coal beds themselves, and note the 
inevitable harmony. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

IS COAL A VEGETABLE PRODUCT 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE COAL BEDS UNDER THE LIGHT OP 
THE ANNULAR THEORY. 

The accepted theory of the origin and formation of 
coal is simply this: It was formed of the remains of an 
ancient vegetation that grew largely in peat and swamp 
marshes. The adoption of this view has led to the 
inevitable conclusion: 1st. That coal is vegetable car- 
bon changed to a hydro-carbon, and subsequently par- 
tially changed to an oxidized hydro-carbon. 2d. Each 
coal seam, however vast and boimdless its extent, was 
universally submerged beneath the sea to receive its 
superposed beds of sand, clay and lime, and afterwards 
re-elevated essentially to the ocean's level to receive the 
next coal seam placed above it. 

These points so warmly maintained by the great fra- 
ternity of geologists we will now examine by the pierc- 
ing light of philosophy. 

Eirst let us remember that every atom of the great 
mass of carbon now forming the coal deposits of the 
world must have been a distilled product of a primi- 
tive igneous process, even before the plant could pos- 
sibly appropriate it; and that we are forced to admit 
that this primitive and original process, which took 
place long ages before a plant ever existed, must have 
supplied the very same chemical products now found in 
the coal beds ! 

Every philosophic chemist is thus unavoidably 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 275 

bound to the conclusion that a process a thousand-fold 
more stupendous and competent to produce all the 
forms of carbon now found in the crust of the earth ex- 
isted in the great telluric gas furnace of primitive 
times. 

Let us imagine two worlds, one covered with a swamp 
vegetation, amid which a slow and puny distillation is 
giving rise to the accumulation of carbon fuel; the 
other a boiling, burning and smoking planet, distilling 
and subliming from millions of furnaces carbon in all its 
forms. Which of these imaginary worlds would form 
fuel carbon more rapidly ? Which would, for the time 
occupied and the means employed, be the more compe- 
tent agent in the grand process of strata-building ? If, 
in the primitive world-furnace, the unconsumed carbon 
fuel should form in the least degree, it would return 
in after-times, with its aqueous and other matter; and 
the mind is utterly at a loss to find figures wherewith 
to multiply the vegetative process to make it at all com- 
parable with the igneous. 

On the other hand we see the great gas retort of the 
molten earth, distilling every carbon product, from the 
heavy graphite of the archsean rocks to the light car- 
bonite of recent times, and we know this process did ob- 
tain, if the earth ever was in a molten state. On the 
other hand, a process which we know could never, and 
would never have obtained, if the foundation had not 
been precisely laid and the food elements previously 
supplied by the former. On the one hand we see a 
process commensurate with creative effort; on the 
other, a process belonging to a world in its complete- 
ness. On one hand, we see, in short, a fuel carbon 
formed in immeasurable quantities, gathered from the 



276 The Earth's Annular System. 

only possible terrestrial source, and stored away as an 
aqueous sediment in the earth's crust; on the other, we 
see this ready-formed carbon as a fuel, etc., entirely 
ignored and disregarded in spite of law, and made by 
some mysterious process into plant food, — an invisible 
gas; a non-supporter of animal life; a non-supporter of 
combustion, — and again transformed into a solid car- 
bon, and then by a secondary combustion transformed 
accidentally into a fuel oxyhydro-carbon, the very same 
thing previously formed. Looking back upon these 
hypothetic worlds as we start upon our tour of investi- 
gation, who will not say that the primitive carbon 
theory has a foundation a thousand times more per- 
manently planted? Why force the puny process of 
peat formation to supply carbon already on hand? 
These questions must address themselves to our notice 
in every step of our progress. Previous chapters have 
so fully established the fact that there was an annular 
system, which in part remained on high till man came 
upon earth, that all we now need to do will be to show 
more clearly that that system was filled, as it were, with 
unconsumed carbon. 

I suppose there is no man of reason who will upon 
mature reflection deny that the earth was once in a 
fiery molten condition. But if the earth ever was in 
a molten condition, can we possibly avoid the conclu- 
sion that it was a smoking world ? Suppose this earth, 
or any orb constituted as this is, should" be by some 
means suddenly changed into an igneous or glowing 
sphere. That the immensity of carbon contained in its 
rocky frame would be under such conditions driven out- 
ward in the form of smoke, or unconsumed carbon, will 
not be questioned by the philosophic student. And is it 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 277 

not an axiomatic fact that that ocean of expelled carbon 
would possess all allotropic forms of that element from 
the heaviest to the lightest? Is it not an axiomatic 
fact that these forms of carbon would, to a great extent, 
arrange themselves in that ocean of vapors in positions 
determined by their specific gravities the heaviest near- 
est the earth ? Mv readers certainly would not require 
me to supply witnesses to prove these things, — =ques- 
tions so evidently true that no further evidence can add 
to their force. 

Hence, it is a conclusion to which we are all com- 
pelled to assent that the primitive atmosphere was 
largely an ocean of distilled carbon; and as we know 
that nearly all unconsumed carbon arising from every 
furnace is a fuel (since it unites with oxygen and dis- 
appears), we know that that primitive carbon in some 
of its forms was also a fuel ! And as we know (as any 
one can prove by experiment) that carbon particles or 
atoms in their nascent state rising among aqueous vapors 
will decompose them and unite with their oxygen form- 
ing an invisible gas, and also with their hydrogen form- 
ing a hydro-carbon,* then we also know that the primi- 
tive atmosphere contained a fund of fuel hydro-carbon ! 
Soot is deposited in infinitesimal sm-oke particles. 
Hence we know that smoke from burning carbon is sim- 
ply a fuel. And we are thus, by the inexorable demands 
of law, driven to the conclusion that the smoke that arose 
from the igneous earth was a fuel hydro-carbon; and 
further, that when the primitive vapors, segregated 
and aggregated into an annular svstem, these forms of 
carbon were present in that system, and also that when 

• Even soot, placed av/ay in a vessel of water, will in time de- 
compose the latter, appropriating its oxygen and a small part of 
its hydrogen. 



278 TJie Earth's Annular System. 

the same rings declined from the annular form into ter- 
restrial belts, this same carbon was present, over- 
canopying the earth on its way to its surface, near the 
poles, or at least beyond the temperate zones. 

JSTow when we turn our eyes to Jupiter and Saturn, 
and see their dark belts in perpetual motion inter se, 
and can find nothing in the whole laboratory of nature 
competent to produce such belts, except carbon, and 
know from analogy that these planets also have been 
burning and smoking worlds, we simply see the Jovial 
and Saturnian carboniferous strata revolving as annu- 
lar matter ; and the process of primitive carbon distilla- 
tion becomes a universal one in the economy of world- 
making. 

There is yet another feature to be examined before 
we are quite ready to examine the coal beds. I pre- 
sume that every one of my readers can see that if the 
condition of the primitive or annular carbon be true, 
as here predicated, the annular theory is being nar- 
rowed down to a few decisive tests. It must be seen 
that if the annular matter arranged itself in the sys- 
tem according to its specific gravity, then the heaviest 
forms of carbon such as graphite were located nearest 
the earth, and therefore fell to it long before the 
lighter forms, l^ow, this being the case, where must 
we find this heavy carbon? Certainly in the first- 
formed aqueous beds ! That is, if the annular theory 
be true there must be found in the archsean beds vast 
quantities of carbon of the greatest specific gravity. 
'Now this carbon having fallen directly after the igneous 
era closed, must be found unassociated with fossil vege- 
tation. And if thus found, it becomes absolute proof 
that carbon, contrary to the opinion of geologists, was 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 279 

formed without the aid of vegetation, and consequently 
supplied directly by the primitive process in the igneous 
earth. Now let us hunt this primitive carbon to its 
hiding place. If we cannot find it, the annular theory 
is a failure. If we do find it, it is once more trium- 
phant; and if found unattended by a fossilized vegeta- 
tion, the theory will again be vindicated. 

At this stage of the argument, then, it is with de- 
light that I turn to the highest of human authority, and 
find the wished-for carbon away down amid the primi- 
tive piles of aqueous beds. Dana tells us graphite, a 
form of carbon, is " very common material " * in the 
oldest beds. Prof. Dawson claims that " the quantity of 
carbon in the laurentian [oldest beds] is equal to that in 
similar areas of the carboniferous system." f It is 
mined for graphite in many parts of both hemispheres, 
and sometimes occurs in massive beds; sometimes 
forming from 20 to 30 per cent, of the laurentian lime- 
beds. It is an important constituent of some of the 
iron strata of the archsean of the old world. Some 
of the purest and best deposits are found in the archaean 
of New England. That is, enough is known of these 
oldest beds to establish beyond a doubt the claim that 
they contain the very material we are in search of to 
vindicate our theory. And as we have previously 
shown that these heavy mineral and metallic beds were 
largely an annular product the presence of heavy car- 
bon in some only adds strength and philosophic value 
to the claim. 

But where are the evidences of vegetable life? 
Where can we find a fossil bud, leaf or stem? For 

• " Manual," page 152. 
tibid., page 157. 



280 The Earth's Annular System. 

fifty years an army of geologists with eyes open and 
keen as the eagle's, has explored the archsean world 
in vain for a satisfactory trace of a vegetable. Can it 
be possible that plants grew on the old world shores 
T^dthout leaving a trace ? Why did the delicate forms 
of the eozoon leave their impress on the imperishable 
granite without a trace of a plant ? Simply because no 
plants were there ! Then how are we to avoid the con- 
clusion that amid the oldest sedimentary beds are vast 
deposits of carbon in whose formation the plant never 
took a part ? Dana says emphatically " no distinct re- 
mains of plants have been observed " in these ancient 
beds; and as the carbon beds themselves are the only 
evidence found, and these no evidences at all, where is 
the hope of the vegetarian ? 

All geologists admit that if coal be a vegetable pro- 
duct graphite must also have had a vegetable origin; 
compromising only so far as to admit that animal or- 
ganisms may have aided in the process, which of course 
only adds to the difficulty, since it is carbon that makes 
the organism, not the organism the carbon. Here, 
then, is a problem which the vegetarian can neither cir- 
cumvent nor climb over without the aid of the annular 
theory. The foundation stone upon which the vege- 
tation theory stands has vanished in primitive fire, and 
the whole edifice tumbles into a mighty mass of ruins. 
Here we are compelled to admit that the graphite is a 
primitive carbon; that carbon did exist, and was placed 
as a sedimentary bed in the earth before a plant ever 
grew upon its surface ! Hence the plant did not form 
the carbon, but the carbon formed the plant. Upon 
this eternal plan the world was built ! From the car- 
bon beds locked amid the metallic and granite sill& of 



Is Ccal a Vegetable Product? 281 

the earth's crust to the peat swamp of the present day, 
carbon has been king, and the plant its pliant product. 
But suppose an abundant vegetation did exist in 
archsean times, could it in the least invalidate the 
philosophic claim that graphite found in the lauren- 
tian beds was derived from the great telluric furnace ? 
Inexorable law demands that graphite carbon must be 
found in the oldest sedimentary rocks. There it is. 
It also demands that it must there be found as an ig- 
neous product. The entire absence of organic fossils 
asserts that it is an igneous product ! I^ow suppose 
in the coming centuries, some leaves, some stems or 
other forms of vegetation should be found in graphite; 
these would, according to law, become graphitic, mere- 
ly because they were imbedded in graphite, for the 
same reason that if the plant form had fallen in a sand 
bed it would have been a silicious fossil. This law 
must hold good at all times. N^ow if men should find 
abundant vegetable fossils in graphite it is simply 
ridiculous to argue from this fact alone that graphite is 
of vegetable origin. There is an abundance of vege- 
table fossils in clay beds, and in sand beds, etc., but who 
would claim from this fact alone that the clay bed or 
the sand bed in which they are found is of vegetable 
origin ? The simple fact that organic fossils are found 
in carbon beds, and changed to carbon, affords no evi- 
dence at all that those organisms made the bed. They 
are simply carbon fossils because they were imbedded in 
a carbon stratum, for the same reason that fossils 
found in a lime bed are calcareous fossils. Human re- 
mains have been found in calcareous formation, but it 
does not follow that limestone is of human origin. And 
yet in defiance of this very law, regulating the f ossiliza- 



282 The Earth's Annular System. 

tion of organic forms, men claim that the carbon strata 
of all ages are of vegetable origin because vegetable fos- 
sils are found in some of them. Thus it must be ad- 
mitted that he who claims that the graphite of the arch- 
8ean strata is of vegetable origin advocates the miracu- 
lous suspension of natural law; first, because there was 
no vegetation existing at that time,* and second, be- 
cause the law requires the existence of carbon in those 
strata that is not of vegetable origin. 

The reader can now judge for himself which theory 
is supported by the facts. He can also see that the 
vegetation theory is mortally weakened by the simple 
fact that the earliest carbon beds cannot by any possi- 
bility be of vegetable origin. 

Men may call the non-existence of vegetation a nega- 
tive evidence; but since its existence is no evidence, 
either positive or negative, that the bed is a vegetable 
product, of what value is it to vegetarians? Even as 
we enter upon paleozoic time we look in vain for any 
forms of vegetation, but the very lowest cryptogamic 
species, and these in very scanty exhibits, and also 
marine in habit. 

E'ow as graphite is not a vegetable product, it is very 
probable that other forms of carbon, as bituminous and 
anthracite coals, are not. Considering that we must 
reverse the law of f ossilization in order to conceive of 
any stratum itself made out of the fossils it contains, it 
is scarcely possible that a coal stratum -can be a vege- 
table product. 



savs: 



• Dana only echoes the universal opinion of geologists when he 
^»ys : " No distinct remains of plants have been observed " in the 
archspan rocks, and as even in the huronian no satisfactory 
traces of plants have been found, we are safe in the claim that 
there are no plant remains in or among the graphite beds. 



75 Coal a Vegetable Product? 283 

We find vegetable remains in coal seams just as we 
find them in any other rock. Sometimes a coal-plant, 
as a lepidodendron, planted in the under-clay rises 
through the coal bed and extends into the overlying 
shale and sandstone. But here we find it a clay fossil 
in the under-clay, a carbonaceous fossil in the coal bed, 
a silicious fossil in the sandstone ; that is, if it has at all 
become mineralized. E^ow the very presence of an 
upright stem, or a trunk of a tree, in such beds is proof 
positive of the rapid accumulation of the beds around 
it. A tree standing while 5 feet of vegetable carbon ac- 
cumulated around it indicates a fall and accumulation of 
40 feet of vegetable debris. Can it be possible that a 
tree would continue to grow in a swamp or marsh while 
the growth of vegetable matter sufficient to make a bed 
of 40 feet in thickness is deposited at its base, and then 
continue to stand till massive beds of sand and clay are 
deposited upon the layer of carbon, according to the 
usual slow process of strata-building? On the suppo- 
sition that such accumulations are deposited, as they 
now are, we are forced to face the miraculous ! On the 
supposition that the carbon fell from the annular sys- 
tem we are led to the conclusion that a bed of carbon 
^ve feet in thickness might accumulate in a few months ; 
nay, it might be in a few days. 

There is one important feature that has been greatly 
misapprehended by geologists in considering the coal 
question. It is a fact easily demonstrated that the 
vegetable carbon in the coal beds is generally not 
bituminous even in a bituminous bed. We often find 
a thin layer of vegetable carbon in the solid coal. It 
is an accumulation of vegetable debris carbonized. 
Any one who will take the pains to collect this vege- 



284 The Earth's Annular System. 

table matter can readily satisfy himself that it is scarce- 
ly combustible. If a plant should fall in a bed of car- 
bon, and afterward, by the aid of pressure and heat, 
become saturated with oil, or bitumen, it would thus be 
made combustible; but nine times out of ten the true 
vegetable matter found imbedded in coal burns with 
difficulty. Such is also the case with true lignites and 
vegetable peat, l^ow this could not be the case if the 
coal beds were made of vegetable carbon; for the abun- 
dance of bitumen in the oily coals necessitates that the 
vegetation should contain the elements of the same. 
And if the coal plants contained a resinous sap, as la 
now claimed by some scientists, even the vegetable char- 
coal would be bituminous. Thus the very fossil vege- 
tation speaks plainly in opposition to the vegetable 
origin of coal. ^ow why is it the very plants which 
geologists claim are necessary for the formation of a bed 
of coal, when gathered from the body of the coal, will 
scarcely burn if these plants formed both the body of 
the coal and the bitumen or oily matter which exists as 
an essential part of it ? The conclusion, it seems to me, 
is inevitable that the vegetation found in coal is to a 
great extent foreign matter, just as the ferns so abund- 
ant in the clays over the coal are foreign to the clay- 
beds, — i.e., simply an involved vegetation. The fact 
that coal has been considered a vegetable product, and 
the statement that vegetation is found in coal are so 
misleading that the common reader has the impression 
that plants and the remains of plants are found in 
abundance in a coal seam, while the fact is that in many 
coal veins there is a paucity of vegetable matter ob- 
servable by the naked eye, and in some coal veins it is 
almost entirely absent. For one visible plant impres- 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 285 

sion in the coal itself there are ten in the roof of the 
coal. Did this great abundance of vegetation give rise 
to the clay beds and shales composing the roof ? They 
are clay fossils because they were imbedded in clay, as 
the fossils in coal are carbon because they were im- 
bedded in carbon. And the simple fact that there are 
fewer fossil remains in some coal than in the superim- 
posed beds, shows that the carbon occupied less time, in 
collecting and forming into a bed. 

Again, it is claimed that the original form of coal is 
that of ordinary peat, now accumulating in peat bogs 
and marshes. I have given no little attention to the 
formation and nature of peat beds in a former chapter, 
but I wish to say in this connection that if peat were 
compressed as coal has been the delicate lamination so 
prevalent in coal would not exist. I have frequently 
counted a dozen or more leaves or laminae in one ver- 
tical inch of coal; sometimes these are not thicker than 
brown paper. And in the examination microscopically 
of a vertical section of coal no fibers can be seen run- 
ning through the mass, as would be the case if coal were 
compressed peat. 

A mass of peat has been compressed with a force of 
20 tons to the square inch, and yet the vertical structure 
of the mass was apparent. Now it matters not, I pre- 
sume, what amount of pressure is employed; it cannot 
make the fibers, roots, carbonized twigs, leaves and 
stems that are well known to " run up and down " in 
a mass of peat to change their position, and lie horizon- 
tally as they do in a coal bed. And this would be the 
more evident as the mass of coal was the more exten- 
sive. Now lest some of my readers think I press this 
view too strongly, I will call their attention to Dana's 



286 The Earth's Annular System. 

description of peat,* who says it is " commonly pene- 
trated by rootlets." Will some one tell us what amount 
of pressure is required to make all these rootlets lie hor- 
izontally in the coal ? It is very rarely that we find any 
roots and rootlets in any position in the coal itself, and 
they are much more rarely found running vertically or 
across the laminations. 

Since we find an abundance of rootlets in the under- 
clays of coal, running in all directions, vertically as well 
as horizontally, it seems conclusive that coal is not 
metamorphosed peat, ^ow imagine a world filled with 
marshes and peat beds; not like the thousands of peat 
bogs that are found on every continent, but great con- 
tinental coal marshes 10,000 or 100,000 square miles in 
extent. Imagine these marshes but little or any above 
the sea level, and covered with calamites, ferns, sigil- 
laria and lepidodendra, — plants of the carboniferous 
era, — and after remaining for countless centuries as a 
motionless continent, to suddenly sink beneath the 
waves of the sea, in order to receive a sea-formed bed 
for a covering; and in this universal burial to preserve 
but a paucity of vegetable fossils, and these mostly in 
horizontal laminations, — while in the clays imme- 
diately under as well in those immediately above the 
coal to be a profusion of fossilized vegetation. This is 
the character of some of the coal formations. 

Now in order that a second coal seam should be 
formed after 20, 50 or a 100 feet of clay, sand and lime 
has accumulated over the buried carbon bed, this great 
expanse must arise just as high above the waves as it 
stood for the first vegetation. If the accumulated sand 
was 20 feet, then the first formed coal beds arose to 

• " Manual," page 616. 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 287 

within 20 feet of the surface of the sea. If 50 feet of 
sand, clays, etc., had accumulated over it, then it arose 
to within fifty feet and then ceased its upward motion, 
and remained a fixed expanse for ages, until another 
bed of coal had accumulated, and then sank again. 
'Now if these changes had taken place but once or twice 
we might conclude that as it was a remarkable coinci- 
dence, chance might explain it. But when we are 
forced to add miracle to miracle by admitting that these 
changes took place to a large extent simultaneously in 
all lands, in all continents, our credulity becomes un- 
duly stretched. And when we are compelled to admit 
that this oscillation of sea and land lost its regularity 
at times on some continents and was repeated from fifty 
to one hundred times to form the coal beds of the same, 
and that the submergence was frequently to abyssal 
depths in order for the accumulation of limestone 
strata, the question amounts to a ridiculous absurdity. 

It is plain that if the oscillating bed had arisen as 
far above the waves as it sank again and again be- 
neath them that no swamp vegetation could have accu- 
mulated. But how did it occur that it stopped so often 
just in the right place, and became so often a permanent 
fixity in an age of constant unstableness ? How did the 
beds of other lands join simultaneously in this process ? 

Thus it seems that the coal is planted immediately 
upon an aqueous-formed stratum, and all the beds be- 
tween coal beds are also aqueous strata, and as we must 
find some primitive carbon beds as aqueous formations 
here in the midst of sedimentary beds we will put in 
our claims. Beneath the peat-bog carbon of this age 
there is frequently a shell bed of fresh-water species, 
and the carbon is deposited immediately upon it, while 



388 The Earth's Annular System. 

the fire clajs and dirt beds of the coal formations show 
that the conditions of carbon accumulation were entire- 
ly different at the very beginning of coal-forming. 
Peat forms in fresh-water swamps. But the coal strata, 
locked between marine beds, show that if they are a 
vegetation the plants were marine. But right here 
we will quote from high authority.* " Algae can 
therefore produce nothing in the shape of coal." . . , 
" They cannot burn or emit any amount of caloric." 
. . . ''All remains of plants found either in the shales 
which cover the coal beds, or in the body of the coal itself 
are land plants, . . . none of it is of marine originJ^ 
(Italics mine.) .N'ow what are we to do? The same 
authority states : " The remains of the plants are only 
found in the roof shales of a coal bed." f From this 
we are forced to conclude that the vegetation thus pre- 
served as fossil is simply an involved one, and came into 
the roof-shales of the coal after the coal-bed was sub- 
merged in the sea, and we simply have no means at 
all to show that the coal is a vegetable product. Thus 
every step we take leads us deeper into difficulty. We 
must find some way to account for the fact that coal 
was deposited over a vast area of sea bottom in different 
regions at the same time. We must find a process that 
abnegates the ridiculous and accommodating submer- 
gence and re-elevation of beds a hundred times re- 
peated, which the old theory necessarily maintains. 
We must find a process of fuel-formation in beds that 
contain but little visible vegetable remains, locked, as 
all marine formations are, between marine beds. Thus, 
as we take a comprehensive glance at the difficulties, 

• " Leo Lesquereux Report of Prog. Pa.," page 609. 
t Ibid., page 618. 



75 Coal a Vegetable Product? 289 

we find the vegetation theory to be unnatural, and not 
to be admitted, whether any other explanation is within 
our grasp or not. "A half-way explanation will not 
do.'' And an unphilosophic explanation cannot be tol- 
erated. 

Now I wish the reader to understand that I do not 
oppose the idea of local submergences, for such things 
do naturally occur. But I do claim that the whole 
world could not have been flooded except by a down- 
rush of super-aerial waters. The structure of the con- 
tinents proves that when once formed they forever con- 
tinued to be continents. 

Dana, in referring to the grand structure lines and 
frame-work of the continents, is forced to say: " There 
is strong reason for concluding that the continents have 
always been continents; and that while portions may 
have at times been submerged some thousands of feet 
the continents have never changed places with the 
ocean." !N'ow if there be any truth to be derived from 
the carboniferous conglomerate beds, it is the fact that 
they were synchronously formed the world over. It 
would be as vain to deny this as to assert that the de- 
posits of the last glacial period were not formed all over 
the Northern Hemisphere during one and the same 
period, extending through unknown centuries. But 
the intimate relation of these conglomerates to the coal 
beds shows that both were involved in whatever sub- 
mergence or whatever change of level took place. 

It must be apparent that coal veins formed accord- 
ing to the general view, in swamps of vast extent, must 
have a general parallelism; and this is the view gen- 
erally held by geologists. On the other hand, if coal 
be an aqueous deposit upon the sea bottom it is plain 



290 The EartJvs Annular System. 

that the parallelism depends entirely upon the thick- 
ness of the intercalated beds in different places. Sup- 
pose a downfall of carbon dust should occur to-day. 
Borne away into the ocean it would settle upon its bot- 
tom over all its irregularities and its plains, of course 
subserviently to directing currents. Then the sand- 
beds accumulating for ages are placed upon it. These, 
of course, would form a greater thickness in some 
places than in others. Hence a succeeding fall of car- 
bon settling upon the ocean's floor could not form a 
bed parallel with the first. It is a matter of ocular 
demonstration that there are actually no such things as 
parallel coal veins. Sometimes for short distances they 
appear to be so. In my own neighborhood the distance 
between the several coal seams varies from 20 to 40 
feet in less than one mile. The main coal seam of the 
Leatherwood Valley, five miles west of the Barnesville 
coal shaft, is ninety feet lower at the former place than 
in the shaft. As there is no strata fracture here these 
beds are evidently lying now as they were placed, which 
at once refers them to aqueous formations on the sea 
bottom. A careful measurement of hundreds of locali- 
ties, given in the geological surveys of the different 
States and Territories, as well as of Europe, demon- 
strates it beyond a peradventure that there is a general 
and universal want of parallelism among coal-veins. 
Prof. !N'ewberry has shown this so clearly in his report 
on the Ohio coals * as to leave no room- for doubt that 
the coal beds did not thus accumulate. Hence, we are 
again driven to the only other source — i.e., an accumu- 
lation of carbon upon the undulatory floor of the sea.f 

* Volume II., " Ohio Reports," pages 126 and 169. 

t While I am presenting this feature, I must, even at the risk 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 291 

Cannel coal is another unimpeachable witness of the 
aqueous deposition of carbon beds. It is admitted, I 
believe, by the principal geologists of America, that 
cannel coal is derived from vegetable matter complete- 
ly macerated in water, and therefore actual aqueous 
sediments. 

Within three miles of my dwelling is a mine of coal, 
on one side of which the formation is bituminous, while 
not 100 yards distant the coal is true cannel, and the 
gradation from the bituminous to the cannel region is 
so gradual that it is impossible to tell where one ter- 
minates and the other begins. The annular theory 
would make both an aqueous sediment, and just as the 
fine sand would separate from coarser by the direction 
of currents, and form a bed of its own, so would the 
finer particles of floating carbon and clay separate and 
form a bed of cannel coal by the side of a bituminous 
bed in such a way that no man could point out the line 
of transition. 

I am glad thus to be able to quote so reliable author- 
ity on this subject, so vital and yet so fatal to the vege- 
table theory. Prof. Andrews, with the keen eye of a 
practical philosopher, saw that the coal-veins must be 
parallel, or the vegetation and submergence theory was 
opposed by law. At least he knew very well that all 



of prolonging this discussion, give Prof, Newberry's opinion on 
the parallelism of coal seams. He says : " Prof. Andrews ac- 
counts for this claimed parallelism by supposing that the different 
coal seams were formed at or near the line of water level, and 
that the subsidences which have caused the successive layers of 
carbonaceous matter were continental or uniform. To these 
views I have been unable to subscribe, inasmuch as I have failed 
to detect the parallelism claimed, and on the contrary, have, as 
it seems to me, in numerous instances, discovered very marked 
inequality in the distances, that at different localities separate 
coal seams which are unmistakably continuous." 



292 The Earth's Annular System. 

continents could not sinmltaneonsly plunge into the sea 
again and again, and not maintain a general parallelism. 
Prof. Xewberry, T^dtli the rich stores of an indefatiga- 
ble and correct observer, announces the very opposite 
conclusion, and backs his views with an array of facts 
that none will dare dispute. I cannot follow him in 
detail, but must refer the reader to the report itself. 
But when he tells us that coal, Xo. 1, is so exceedingly 
variable as to show a series of waves, whose summits 
are in many places 50 feet higher than the trough 
" within the limits of a few hundred acres " ; again, 
when he states that in the northwest corner of Carroll 
County, Ohio, within an area of 1,200 feet, the distance 
between coals, Xo. 3 and 4, varies from 20 to 45 feet, 
and at another point from 20 to 90 feet, and another 
110 feet, and when he says that the interval between 
Xo. 4 and Xo. 6 is equally variable; that the intervals 
between JSTo. 6 and 'No. 7 vary from 54 to 100 feet; 
that the distance between the great Pittsburg seam and 
the Ames limestone varies from 140 to 225 feet; and 
again when he states '' it has been proved that between 
Barnesville and Bellaire the space between coals Xo. 8 
and No. 10 increases by more than 100 feet," he only 
states a philosophic and necessary fact. 

We will consider the famous cannel mine at Cannel- 
ton, Pennsylvania, as a representative of this class of 
coal. In the bottom of the mine is an 18-inch bed of 
pure bituminous coal. On the top of this is a heavy 
mass of true cannel. Here, then, as usual, we are a: 
once confronted by the unnatural fact that two veins of 
coal, one placed immediately upon the other, without 
one-tenth of an inch of vertical gradation; not the space 
of the thickness of common ^vriting paper between 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 293 

them, so as actually to make one solid seam of coal, 
yet one part is claimed by high authority to be an aque- 
ous deposit and the other not. The bituminous is made 
to be a vegetable bog-growth, and yet is clear of any 
permeating rootlets; shows hundreds of fine lamina- 
tions, just such as one would expect to see in a fine sedi- 
mentary deposit from water. The cannel, a massive 
accumulation of black carbonaceous mud, with very lit- 
tle evidence of lamination, is made to be a completely 
macerated mass of vegetation. The bog, then, in which 
the bituminous mass was accumulating, sank not as slow- 
ly as is the natural process of to-day, but suddenly 
from the swamp level to the condition of a lake or 
pond, and the hypothetic slow and long maceration be- 
gan instantly to supply the cannel carbon. There was 
simply no time given for " maceration '^ before the 
vegetation was macerated, and began to fall on the bit- 
uminous bed. E'o conscientious geologist can stand in 
this cannel mine, seeing these things as plainly as 
the light of day, and say, this is the tale of the cannel ! 
The bituminous bog could never have sunk and re- 
ceived the cannel vegetation as thus claimed, and when 
J find this the case in hundreds of places, sometimes 
the cannel above, sometimes beneath the bituminous, 
and so often is it the case that no parting exists between 
them, that we may call it the rule rather than the ex- 
ception. The subsidence, if it ever took place in these 
cannel beds, should have made a parting of something 
that in-rushing waters must have conveyed to the spot. 
Thus, while it is impossible to explain this sudden 
change in the character of the two deposits by the old 
theory, if we will but admit that the same process that 
plants a bed of limestone immediately upon a sand bed 



294 The Earth's Annular System. 

without any signs of gradation — by simply depositing 
the bituminous carbon first, and then by a slight 
change of moving currents bringing in another form of 
carbon, the solution is plain. 

We must conceive this carbon as susceptible of trans- 
portation and change as any other sediment, and local 
beds of fine carbonaceous mud, which the cannel car- 
bon really is, could not avoid formation while currents 
ran, any more than sand or clay. Admit all such 
beds to be sedimentary deposits of annular carbon and 
every mystery in their formation vanishes. 

Black carbonaceous shales, so universally prevalent, 
must have had this same origin. Sand and clays mixed 
by intermingling currents with floating carbon in black 
carbonaceous waters could not fail to give rise to black 
shales, and as many of these shales are almost devoid 
of fossil organisms, and especially of plants, to attribute 
their color and the presence of carbon to vegetation is 
unnatural. And all must see that if the earth was ever 
in a molten state, its annular carbon, falling in after 
ages as so much primitive soot, could not have failed to 
blacken the waters of the ocean wherever currents 
moved, and the sediment deposited therein must have 
mingled with the carbon. If the carbon had been in 
excess in these shales the result would have been a de- 
posit of cannel coal ; on the other hand, if the clays had 
been in excess in the Cannelton mine, the result would 
have been a black shaly deposit. If no mud had inter- 
fered, the whole deposit would have been a bituminous 
coal. 

A remarkable deposit of coal exists in eastern Penn- 
sylvania, at Summit Hill, — a spot made historic by the 
great Lyell. Here seven coal veins at first occupying 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 295 

a vertical range of 134 feet (including intervening 
strata of rock) so rapidly approach each other that they 
all unite into one seam in less than -^ve miles from their 
beginning. 'Now, according to the old theory, that 
part of the bog where the one heavy seam is, stood firm 
and was never once submerged, while the space imme- 
diately adjoining went down and returned seven differ- 
ent times until 134 feet of rock were intercalated and 
seven seams of coal were formed out of seven successive 
swamps, and finally the whole swamp went down to- 
gether. Every man must see how unphilosophic this is I 
And yet how easily explained as sedimentary beds. A 
carbon bed was formed, currents carried other matter 
and covered up a part of the bed. Another supply of 
carbon settles down upon the whole, and the process is 
repeated again and again; the strata having thus been 
formed as other strata are at this day. This simply is 
a refutation of the swamp theory, and the idea of the 
parallelism of coal veins. 

It is well known that " quite a number of boulders 
of rock foreign to the localities where found have been 
met with in the coal seams of Ohio." (l^ewberry.) 
Here is another emphatic and decisive test. Boulders 
in a coal seam mean a coal seam formed under water, 
and a foreign boulder in a coal seam means a coal seam 
formed at the bottom of the ocean. 

The vegetarians so far concede this as to admit that 
*' the ocean must have been very near," that " the ocean 
must have made an inroad upon the coal swamp," etc. 
Now since the ocean must have been " very near " to 
have deposited the bed upon which the coal seam was 
placed, and " very near " to have formed the bed 
placed immediately upon the coal, and very near, when 



296 The Earth's Annular System. 

boulders were floated over its surface and dropped in the 
coal deposit, let us admit the inevitable truth that the 
ocean was " very near '^ all the time ! 

And since the ocean w^as so '^ very near " as to per- 
mit some floating body, as a tree or moving ice, to drop 
a boulder into a forming coal bed at the bottom of the 
sea, it was about as close as we need to have it in order 
to crush the swamp theory forever. 

In conversation with the intelligent proprietor of the 
Cannelton coal mine, above referred to (I. Mansfield), 
I learned that water-worn pebbles had been found in 
the coal there. A boulder now in the museum at 
Columbus, Ohio, and found in the middle of a coal seam 
at Shawnee, '^ weighs not less than 200 pounds,'' and 
showed the marks of glaciation. The coal above this 
boulder " was normal in all respects," * showing that 
the vein finished forming after the boulder fell into it. 
iJsTow it is plain that if there had been a submergence 
and a re-elevation of a coal swamp that the condition of 
the vein would have left indisputable evidence of the 
change, but as all the evidence is positive and directly 
opposed to a submergence, and in favor of a continued 
and uninterrupted deposition of carbon upon the 
boulder and its new surroundings, it is impossible to 
avoid the conclusion that the Shawnee coal seam was a 
sedimentary aqueous formation, — one of the seams that 
the igneous world under the dictum of law declares 
must be found in the aqueous crust. Bbulders foreign 
to the locality are found at Carbondale and INTelsonville, 
and I have been repeatedly informed by intelligent 
miners, who have worked in Scotland and on the con- 
tinent of Europe, as well as among the Eocky Moun- 

* " Ohio Report for 1884," Vol. V., pages 136, 1006. 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 297 

tain coals, that they had met in coal mines with water- 
worn boulders and pebbles (not concretions) of differ- 
ent colors. When we take into the account the num- 
bers that never came before the gaze of the geologist, 
and remember that but a small part of the field has ever 
met the eyes of man, we may be allowed to magnify the 
evidence these boulders afford. If men are not bound 
by the merciless fetters of antiquated opinion they must 
see that the vegetable theory has here an obstacle that 
they cannot remove. 

But other evidences are found in the coal veins quite 
as positive as that of the boulder. There is scarcely a 
coal vein in the United States, to say nothing of other 
countries, that is not divided at least once, and many 
of them are divided into many horizontal sections by 
clay seams that were deposited from the ocean's 
waters while the coal seam was forming. These clay 
partings are generally very persistent, varying in 
thickness from a few inches to that of writing paper. 
In some seams these extend over thousands of square 
miles, and few of them contain vegetable fossils; a few 
of them animal organisms; but the greater part are 
wide reaches of barren clay. These seams declare 
what no man will contradict, that all the coal veins of 
the United States, during some period at least, and 
many of them during frequent periods, were under the 
waters of the sea ! I only go one step farther than my 
brother geologists, and instead of admitting that ^' these 
things demand that the oceans were near at hand " 
when these clays were deposited, I admit that they 
were present, not only when the clays were deposited, 
but also when the coal veins containing them were de- 
posited. 



298 The Earfh^s Annular System. 

But the testimony of these clay-partings does not 
stop here. Supposing that the lower bench of a coal 
seam really was a vegetable product, " grown in situ," 
with its root bed below the coal seam, as is claimed; 
after a seam of carbon is thus formed the swamp is 
submerged, and an outspread of mud covers up the 
vegetation to the depth of half an inch without enclos- 
ing a trace of that vegetation in the parting itself. Now 
it is simply impossible that a parting of clay should set- 
tle down upon an expanse of submerged vegetation 
without preserving that vegetation in itself. But it 
is the rarest thing that even a trace of a plant, stem or 
leaf, is observable; what conclusion, then, must we 
draw? 

But how in the name of reason did the vegetation 
that formed the next bench of coal take root in this thin 
seam of clay ? Have the roots of this succeeding vege- 
tation been found in this thin clay-parting? I have 
never known of such an instance, and yet I have lived 
among coal mines the greater part of my life, and have 
carefully examined hundreds of localities for them. We 
are plainly forbidden by the evidence and the verdict 
of law to claim either a submergence or a vegetation. 
But suppose that to-day a great carbon fund should 
float from the Arctic Ocean into Hudson Bay. This 
carbon would settle upon an undulating bottom, and 
if a flood of muddy waters from the surrounding rivers 
should empty into the Bay while the carbon bed was 
forming, a thin clay parting over wide areas would in- 
evitably follow. The clay being heavier than the car- 
bon would immediately settle, and allow the carbon to 
complete its deposition afterwards. And further, as 
this inpouring of carbon from the ocean might continue 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 299 

for years there would be ample opportunity for many 
clay seams. 

Now it must be admitted that if there ever was car- 
bon dust in the annular system; in short, if there ever 
was an igneous and smoking earth, such carbon veins 
with such clay-partings do now exist in the aqueous 
crust. Have we not found them in the United States 
coal-formations ? 

Microscopic organisms in coal so far from being op- 
posed to the theory here advanced become valuable aids 
to it when intelligently considered. I have elsewhere 
referred to the axiomatic claim that the annular sys- 
tem contained the seed beds of animal and vegetable 
organisms. It is beyond our power to determine how 
far the evolution of organisms continued in this annu- 
lar world. Trusting that others more capable may in 
the future come to a philosophic conclusion in the mat- 
ter, I will not press it further than to reiterate the 
necessity of the claim that the floating mass of primi- 
tive carbon clouds, after they entered the atmosphere 
and floated away, perhaps for centuries, toward the 
polar regions, in their efforts to reach the earth, became 
a tissue or web of evolving vegetable organisms, accom- 
panied with an immensity of microscopic forms. !Now 
I know not to what extent microscopic forms exist in 
the mass of the coal. I only know they should be 
there, and that in the deposition of the coal they 
should be segregated upon definite surfaces. Let it be 
understood that I am not drawn to this conclusion from 
any suspicion that criticism will force me to it, but 
from careful study and long research in experimental 
work. I have taken fresh soot from the furnace, with- 
in a few minutes after it was formed, subjected it to the 



300 The Earth's Annular System. 

hot vapors from boiling Tvater, and stored it away in an 
open vessel of water, and have seen vegetable and ani- 
mal organisms start into being, live, propagate and die 
therein. This same experiment any man can perform. 
Xow this having been done, I want to know what is 
there that can possibly hinder floating or revolving soot- 
clouds in attenuated air, or even in the annular system, 
— an ocean of matter where every disposition and po- 
tency of matter existed, — from being regions of organic 
development. For this reason it is impossible for me 
to look upon the belt system of Jupiter as any other 
than an ocean of organisms, adapted to their own pecu- 
liar environments. It seems to be the inevitable and 
universal summation of a disposition in matter, akin to 
spirit, under a controlling intelligence. Then looking 
back at the carbonaceous do^vnfalls, ranging through 
countless myriads of years, I behold floods of micro- 
scopic and other organisms, I know then, experiment- 
ally, that carbonaceous waters are favorable to the evo- 
lution of organic matter, and theoretically that carbon- 
aceous clouds are also. What other conclusion, then, 
can we come to than that a fund of carbon floating in 
the ocean, or lying in lakes and ponds, would give rise 
to vegetable and animal organisms adapted to the con- 
ditions existing; and that this carbon as it reached its 
destination, in the tedious and protracted round and cir- 
culation of currents, would involve these forms in the 
accumulating mass ? 

If the clay mud at the bottom of lakes, or the cal- 
careous ooze on the ocean's floor, as it accumulates into 
beds, involves its o^vn peculiar life forms, and presents 
a mass of microscopic and other organisms, I cannot for 
anv reason see whv the carbonaceous ooze in the same 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product f 301 

lake beds, on the same sea bottom, could fail to involve 
its characteristic forms, and that the same as fuel car- 
bon would not to a large extent exhibit them. Hence, 
I predicate that future researches in this direction will 
reveal the fact that the mass of coal contains just such 
organisms as the ancient carbonaceous environment de- 
manded. 

As is well known, an abundance of marine vegetation 
exists upon the sea bottom in all favoring localities — 
creeping stems, with roots and leaf -like forms; floating 
vines with reaching tendrils, and with roots fixed in the 
mud. A carbon sediment rapidly accumulating would 
involve all this. 

iNTow the geologist will not fail to see that another 
important question is here involved. Under almost 
all the carbon veins there lies a bed of fire clay, — a 
" dirt bed." It is a little strange that immediately ad- 
joining a highly combustible bed a substance should 
be so invariably planted so refractory as to form cru- 
cibles for the fusing of almost every known metal. In 
this bed lies entombed a profuse marine vegetation, and 
the fact that its delicate lineaments have been so well 
preserved proves that it was suddenly involved. The 
fact that it is practically infusible argues that it was a 
fire-born distillation of primitive times. The fact that 
it so generally accompanies a primitive carbon product 
argues the same. The fact that it is more generally 
present under coal veins that are more distant from the 
tropics, and invariably present in the most distant ones, 
leads to the same conclusion. While the fact that fire- 
formed clay dust, sublimed in the great telluric crucible, 
must have arisen and commingled with the primitive 
vapors, and returned with them, impels to the conclu- 



302 The Earth's Annular System. 

sion that when a carbon-fall occurred, this clay matter, 
necessitated by its greater specific gravity, separated and 
fell first upon the ocean's floor.* This fire clay is found 
in a modified form under beds of primitive graphite 
where no vegetation is involved, and therefore cannot 
be a vegetable distillation. It is found between mas- 
sive beds of glacier polar ice, immediately under a car- 
bonite deposit, as at Kotzebue Sound, which enforces 
the same conclusion. This fire-born clay is found in 
such stupendous masses in almost all glaciated districts, 
whose glaciers radiated from polar regions, as to utterly 
confound the geologist in his efforts to find a philosophic 
source. It is found in lands a thousand miles from 
abraded mountains; in beds which prove by analysis to 
be peculiar, and not what we would expect, as mud pul- 
verized by the moving ice. The persistency of these pe- 
culiarities in all lands, whether the abraded region be si- 
licious or calcareous, micaceous or feldspathic; whether 
the neighboring hills and mountains could yield such 
clays or not, must, it seems to me, lead us to look to 
the annular system as its source. It is said that not 
one of the more than TO coal beds in the xsTova Scotia 
region is without its characteristic clay bed. When we 
see trees standing in and surrounded by this clay, and 
rising through the coal seam, and even penetrating 
many feet into the overlying rock, we are forced to 
admit a rapid accumulation. So that every standing 
tree in such a position, so far from evincing the claims 
of vegetable distillation either in clay or coal, during 
immense periods of time, stands as insuperable evidence 
against them. These beds accumulated during the 

* I greatly regret that space does not permit me to follow this 
important question further. A volume might be written on these 
fire-born clays alone. 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 303 

lifetime of the tree, and not only the coal, but the sand 
beds above, accumulated around it; and reason urges 
the claim that the tree could not long survive this or- 
deal. But the most moderate estimate of the time re- 
quired for the slow vegetable accumulation of a coal 
bed alone, it seems to me, ought to settle this question. 
On the other hand, admitting that every annular down- 
fall of matter, aqueous vapor, carbon-dust or snows, 
must have brought their associated clays, and more 
largely in the more recent falls, all these otherwise in- 
tractable problems are explained. The tree growing in 
its own swamp clay bed, first involved by the aug- 
mented ocean, must have perished then. Immediately 
the ocean, muddied by the clay and carbon, precipitates 
first the clay as the normal bed for the coal; then fol- 
lows the carbon; and the terrific fiood of waters from 
adjacent continents brings in the muddy waters, ana 
the great fund of vegetation of the upper clays; then 
upheaval and other changes resulting from oceanic aug- 
mentation supplies the other assorted beds. This 
brings us to that point when we must consider the ques- 
tion of lime and sand strata and their fossils, as referred 
to in a former chapter. 

I know not whether standing trees rising from coal 
veins have ever been found in regions where limestones 
predominate. The annular theory requires that such 
should not be the case. These strata are largely a 
deep sea formation, and only such as were deposited as 
mechanical precipitates could be formed in shallow 
waters, especially in regions beyond the tropics. Hence 
it is plain that if we find an abundant fossil vegetation 
in the clay beds above the coal in limestone regions their 
presence antagonizes the new theory, and if not found 



304 The Earth's Annular System. 

it antagonizes the old one. While also a limestone 
stratum deposited, manifestly near and among shore 
deposits, or continental detritus, points directly to an 
annular origin, and here we will expect to find vege- 
table fossils in the upper clays. Xow geologists have 
here a chance to prove or disprove this problem. So 
far as my observations have extended in the Appala- 
chian coal field this theory is abundantly sustained by 
the great limestone strata. And, again, so far as I am 
able to gather evidence from the surveys of the west- 
ern coal fields, it is felicitously supported by the general 
absence of lime beds among the coal seams, and the 
presence of immense amount of vegetation as fossils in 
the interposed beds of sand and clay. Again I must 
abruptly close the consideration of this wonderfully 
rich field of thought. 

I have several times referred to these as important 
tests of the truth of the annular hypothesis. Since it 
is self-evident that peat vegetation for the distillation 
of carbon fuel could never have assumed a foothold in 
any region if the peat foundation had not been pre- 
viously laid down; and since the great peat-forming re- 
gions of the earth increase in importance and extent 
from the region of the tropics toward the poles, until 
we find them under the polar circles where the soil is 
solidly frozen the year round (except a slight cover- 
ing of soil in the short summer), it is plain that some 
stupendous supply of carbonaceous matter has been 
added to these colder regions in modern times. I have 
shown why annular matter must fall in these higher lat- 
itudes, both north and south. I have shown that car- 
bon must have constituted a part of that matter, and 
how that the more recent downfall supplied it, as an 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 305 

accompaniment of snows, etc., but it seems necessary 
at this point to give some further facts tending to cor- 
roborate the claim that the peat foundation is what I 
have called carbonite as distinct from peat itself, — 
an annular product. 

In Dr. Anderson's ^^ Practical Treatise on Peat- 
Moss " he frequently alludes to beds of ^' black sedi- 
ment," " rich loam/' " black moss " sunk beneath the 
waters of the sea, lakes and ponds. Sometimes divers 
have reported " black mud '^ in the Scottish seas from 
100 to 180 feet deep. At Loch Alsh, also at Oban, 
more than 100 feet beneath the surface of the water, 
the harbor bottom is covered with the same black car- 
bonaceous matter. The same is seen at low tide on the 
shores of the Frith of Forth.* 

What is more, this same black carbon deposit " has 
been dredged far out in the German Ocean." f In 
nearly all these carbonite deposits, whether on high 
ground, or in the sea, are found trees prostrate, and some 
in the seas with the trunks erect. And the simple fact 
that some of these trees are such as do not grow in peat 
bogs, is the strongest kind of evidence that they are not 
true peat bogs. The ash, oak, fir, alder, etc., etc., 
says Geikie, are found in them, " rooted in the kind of 
soil they are known to prefer ! " if These trees are 
sometimes so well preserved that they are made into 
merchantable lumber. And as peat is an exceeding 
slow formation, how did they become involved in peat 
beds and remain undecayed, even if they could have 
flourished in a bog? This carbonite, so-called peat, is 

♦ Geikie's " Great lee Age," page 298. 
tibid., page 300. 
t Ibid., page 294. 



306 The Earth^s Annular System. 

not confined to the lowlands. Large areas of Scottish. 
Highlands are covered with it, just as vast portions of 
Russia, Siberia, British America, and the United States 
are, and which if covered by earth would be peat to 
all intents and purposes. 

But who has ever reported peat submerged in the 
tropics — those very regions where luxuriant vegeta- 
tion grows and dies ? Is there any philosophic reason 
why peat should not be found more abundantly there 
than elsewhere, except the fact that the foundation car- 
bon has never fallen there ? And where in the tropics 
can the geologist point to any important coal beds? 
Here is the very region above all others where vast beds 
of coal ought to be found, if vegetation could have pro- 
duced them. And if they could be found here it would 
sweep the annular theory from its foundation. The 
simple truth is that peat and coal are not found where 
the vegetarian wants to find them! They are found, 
however, just where the annular theory says they must 
be found! The vegetarian must leave the very home 
of vegetation, and in defiance of all law he must find his 
coal beds amid vegetation stunted and depauperated by 
cold, and find it, too, where vegetation could never 
grow, — amid rocks born in fire. Such inconsistencies 
meet the geologist at every turn. Why is peat found 
in the ocean? Because the ocean has submerged it. 
Then why is it found in the thousands of lakes and 
ponds where no peat vegetation is now growing ? Sup- 
pose we should find a peat bed 40 feet thick. As it 
must have been at one time a lake with 40 feet of water, 
how did the peat begin to grow? Did it begin at the 
bottom of the lake, and fill the same, or did it begin to 
grow on the top of the water and gradually drop its 



Is Coal a Vegetable Product? 307 

carbon particles upon the bottom ? In either case it is 
plain that all rains and floods must have washed mud 
and other detritus into it far more rapidly than peat 
could fill it. But there are peat beds from 30 to 40 feet 
thick. This implies, according to Dana,* 240 to 320 
feet of vegetable growth. Such beds were once lakes 
or ponds, at least from 30 to 40 feet deep. How did 
such lakes ever become swamps of vegetation without 
being first " filled up ? " Did vegetation fill them with 
carbon, in order that it might plant itself in a swamp 
to fill the lake with carbon ? This is the pure logic of 
the peat bog question ! Then those deep coal beds of 
Montchanin,f 100 to 120 feet thick, required vegetable 
growth of 800 to 960 feet. If that much peat could 
form and fill a pond 100 feet, a pond 15 or 20 feet 
stands a fair chance at least. 

E'ow suppose we should find the same regular grada- 
tion in the quality of coal in the Southern Hemisphere 
that we do in the E'orthern — that is, the heaviest and 
most massive beds distant from the equator, and the 
lightest and poorest coals nearer it. It certainly would 
place the primitive coal theory upon an impregnable 
rock, even if other evidence failed. Through private 
correspondence from South America, I have gained 
enough facts in the case to cause me to place this on 
record: If geologists will show that such gradation does 
not exist in the Southern Hemisphere, then the author 
of the annular theory will take a back seat, where in 
that event he ought to remain. Here, then, is another 
test question, with which men under favorable circum- 
stances can either confirm or overthrow my claims. 

• " Manual," page 359. 

t Phin's " Six Days of Creation/' page 64. 



308 TJie EarWs Annular System. 

There are numberless instances of the formation of 
bog iron ore, and men suppose that the ore in the bog 
is the product of a vegetable distillation. But how can 
vegetation produce iron ores unless it had previously 
a supply of iron upon which to draw? Are we to un- 
derstand that the plant makes iron? Or that it takes 
iron which is already supplied and forms a secondary 
product ? We must look back of the plant for all such 
supplies, just as we must go back of the diatom or the 
millepore for the matter of silicious and calcareous for- 
mations. After these supplies are furnished the build- 
ers go to work; and without these primitive supplies 
there could never have been such formations, either 
primitive or secondary. On this rock the coal question 
must stand, and if this primitive supply of carbon had 
fallen in tropical lands, there would the peat vegetation 
make its greatest show ! 

I have elsewhere referred to coal seams among heavy 
beds of conglomerate — the work of glaciation. Around 
the Pottsville anthracite region, Pennsylvania, import- 
ant coal-beds have been opened in the very body of the 
conglomerate, and must therefore have been formed 
when the earth lay in ice fetters of a glacial period. 
The Sharon coal of Pennsylvania, says Lesquereux,* 
" is placed systematically in the conglomerate,'' and the 
very frequent occurrence of conglomerates either di- 
rectly above or beneath the coal, shows that fuel carbon 
and continental snows have been frequent associates. 

How can the vegetation theory reconcile these incon- 
sistencies? But here is where annular downfalls de- 
mand that it should be found, for carbon fuel must have 
fallen with the frozen vapors, as surely as with other 

• " Report of Progress," published 1830, page 630. 



7s Coal a Vegetable Product? 309 

annular matter. Coal has been found in fragmentary 
patches in the silurian beds, and in more extensive beds 
in the Marcellus shales of the devonian. And the oc- 
currence of bituminous patches of coal in anthracite 
fields, and the occurrence of heavy anthracite beds, 
where, according to the old theory, bituminous matter 
should prevail, necessitates some further consideration 
in another chapter. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SOME EMPHATIC AND POSITIVE EVIDENCE OF THE Al^NULAK 

OEIGIN" OF COAL IN THE METAMOEPHISM OF 

THE CARBON BEDS; 

ALSO, 

SOME CONCLUSIVE TESTIMONY FEOM THE CEETACEOUS AND 
TEETIAEY COALS. 

It is well known that when bituminous or lignitic 
coal, or even peat, is subjected to a sufficient degree of 
heat, it is converted into hard coal, or even graphite. 
Hence, it has become a common belief that all anthra- 
cite and other hard forms of carbon found in the earth's 
crust are metamorphosed beds of soft carbon. Is this 
deduction a logical one? In immediate contact with 
volcanic chimneys or where overflowing or intruding 
lava has heated the adjacent beds, coal has been meta- 
morphosed for a few yards, or even rods ; but such heat 
in various instances, known perhaps to all geologists, 
has not materially affected such beds except in that im- 
mediate neighborhood ! How is it, then, that vast coal 
fields planted in the aqueous crust himdreds of miles 
from any igneous agencies, except those consequent 
upon rock pressure, are now in the anthracite, or semi- 
anthracite, state ? If such forms of coal are metamor- 
phic matter, there must be some infallible tests. Let us 
hunt them up. 

In the first place the only purely logical conclusion 
that can be drawn from igneous intrusion and meta- 
morphism is: That the igneous earth — the great distil- 




Fig. 12. EARTH IN EDENIC TIMES. 

(CANOPL'S AND POLAR OPENINGS.) 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 311 

lery of carbon — must have made its share of anthracite 
out of the carbon it had control of. If volcanic fires in 
contact with carbon can produce such beds in a limited 
way, then the primitive fires of tens of thousands of vol- 
canoes in the incandescent earth, in contact with meas- 
ureless oceans of carbon, must have made unlimited 
quantities of the same. Can there be a man of reason, 
who has ever given the constitution of this orb one 
attentive and intelligent thought, that does not know 
that the immensity of carbon now in the earth was in it, 
or around it, when it rolled through space, a burning 
orb? !N"ow, if knowing these facts, — these inevitable 
and self-evident conditions, — the philosopher chooses to 
utterly ignore them and set up the claim that the last 
puny fires of a wrinkled and aged world have metamor- 
phosed all this fund of carbon, it shall be no fault of 
mine. While the peat combustion inevitably points to 
a previous one, so long as it distils an atom of carbon, 
the volcano, so long as it changes a carbon bed at the 
distance of a rod or a foot from it, points to the igneous 
process, and is proof positive that beds of anthracite and 
other hard carbons exist in the earth's crust as an inevi- 
table product of that process. If the philosopher cannot 
see the necessary end to which he is here impelled, in 
epite of education and prejudice, I will attempt to per- 
suade him by evidence, if possible, more apparent and 
conclusive. 

!N"ow it is plain that the anthracite coals are either 
bituminous coals changed by heat to hard coals, or they 
are themselves an original and normal production; that 
is, a carbon unchanged, but placed in beds in the form 
of anthracite. 

It is then plainly our next duty first to examine the 



312 The Earth's Annular System. 

evidence of metamorphisin, and learn what it declareo. 
When bituminous coal is changed to hard coal it is done 
bj merely driving off the volatile constituents ; and as 
a matter of course, all the ash of a bituminous coal will 
remain in the anthracite, since it cannot escape as vola- 
tile matter. Thus, if in 100 pounds of bituminous coal 
there were twenty per cent, of ash, or twenty pounds, 
then by subjecting it to heat sufficient to drive off 
twenty per cent, of its weight as volatile matter, and 
thus make a hard coal of it, there would be eighty pounds 
of coal remaining, including its ash. ^ow twenty 
pounds of these eighty are that ash, which instead of 
being twenty per cent, of coal as before, is now twenty- 
five per cent. That is, all anthracite coal, changed 
from bituminous coal, will contain a greater per cent, 
of ash than the coal from which it is derived. This 
seems so plain that none surely will attempt to dispute 
it. It is therefore claimed by geologists that the 
" average amount of ash in anthracite ought to be one- 
half greater than in bituminous coal.'' * Hence it is 
evident that a fair and candid examination and analysis 
of coals will settle this question. Anthracite, in order 
to be a hardened bituminous coal, must contain a 
greater per cent, of ash. 

If, then, during a fair examination we find that it 
does not contaia a greater per cent., then all men will 
be forced to admit that it never was bituminous coal. 
After many years of examination, I trust with a spirit 
of fairness, I might fill many pages with authentic an- 
alyses of coals, and hardly an instance at all that I have 
collected will show a greater per cent, in the average in 
favor of the anthracite. But I will lay my own tables 

. • Dana's " Manual," page 363. 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 313 

aside (partly for want of space), and use only those 
analyses that all will respect as those of well-known au- 
thority. We will first take the analyses given by Dana 
himself.* 

The average per cent, of ash for two anthracites of 
Pennsylvania is given as 3.46. Comparing this with 
Pennsylvania semi-anthracites, the former, being more 
completely changed, as any one can see ought to con- 
tain a greater ash. !N"ow the average of eleven sam- 
ples of these semi-anthracites, taken from the Pennsyl- 
vania Geological Survey, and here used by Dana, give 
an average of 7.16 — more than twice as much ash in the 
softer coal — not very favorable to the old theory, when 
the harder should contain " more." But lest my read- 
ers may think the above average of the anthracite too 
small to be fair, I will take the average of all Penn- 
sylvania anthracites as here given, and base our cal- 
culations upon it. The average of 26 anthracites, in- 
cluding one foreign, is 4.35; but, including only Penn- 
sylvania coals, the average is 5.28. I might use the for- 
mer, but that the examination may be fair in every way 
we will use the latter. This, compared with the average 
of semi-anthracites of the same State, according to the 
accepted rule, ought to be greater. Eleven analyses 
of the latter give an average of 7.16, which less 5.28 
=1.88, all on the wrong side. Again, comparing it 
with the six semi-bituminous coals of the same State, 
used by Dana, we have 10.20 minus 5.28=4.92, still 
opposed to the rule. Then comparing it with fifteen 
semi-bituminous coals of Pennsylvania and Maryland, 
the average of which is 10.32, the anthracite is less by 
5.04 per cent. !N'ow if we compare it with the ten an- 

* " Manual," page 316. 



314 The EarWs Annular System. 

alyses of Pennsylvania bituminous coals, we have 6.47 
— 5.28=1.19, still contrary to the rule. Comparing 
with the eleven Virginia bituminous coals, we have 
11.06 — 5.28=5.78. The bituminous has more than 
twice as much ash as the average of Dana's anthracites. 
Tf we go outside of the immediate Appalachian field of 
coal, and add those of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, 
we have 398 analyses, with an average of 6.30 per cent, 
of ash, or 1.02 per cent, more yet than the anthracite, 
!N'ow as these western coals, as given by Dana, contained 
a less per cent, of ash than the recent geological surveys 
give, these tests are very fair. And as any one can 
see there is not one instance where the rule is vindi- 
cated. How it ever happened that this high authority 
should notice this empirical law, call the attention of 
his readers to the same, and then immediately complete 
a large list of analyses, and not see the law completely 
abrogated, is marvelously strange. 

If, now, we leave this authority, and turn to the 
American Cyclopaedia, article " Anthracite," we find 
eighteen analyses of both American and foreign anthra- 
cites, with an average of 4.25, or one per cent, less than 
Dana's, and a stronger denimciation of the rule. Tak- 
ing this average I find it to be below the average of the 
bituminous coals of all parts of the United States, as 
given by Dr. Peale,* and also below all the western lig- 
nites, except those of California. It is not necessary 
to burden the reader with further statistical facts that 
may be gathered from both foreign and native coals to 
prove the utter failure of this alleged law. If one 
should take the analysis of an anthracite specimen that 

* "Amer. Cvclo., Article 'Anthracite.' " 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 315 

represents a very high percentage of ash he might rea- 
sonably conclude that that specimen had at one tim3 
been a bituminous coal, and that it was a sample taken 
from a true metamorphosed region where fire or heat 
had actually changed it; but taking the whole list of 
samples thus far analyzed it must be acknowledged by 
all that the average, so far from being " one-half 
greater, is at least one-half less." The duty, then, of 
the geologist is plain: to drop the doctrine of metamor- 
phism in reference to anthracite, and agree that " it is 
as much a normal creation as the bituminous." * But 
if he drop this doctrine he must take up the primitive 
carbon theory. There can be no intermediary doctrine. 
It requires the agency of excessive heat to make an an- 
thracite, and if not heat brought to bear upon the coal, 
after it was laid down in the earth's crust, it was 
brought to bear upon it before it was laid down. And 
if brought to bear upon it before it was laid, we have 
no resort but the admission that such coals are the 
primitive products of the igneous earth. It is only one 
more instance of the demands of law — one more in- 
stance of positive testimony that settles the annular 
theory upon its immutable foundation. Men who are 
abundantly better qualified than I am, and with better 
opportunities for gathering information from the coal 
literature of the world, can see for themselves that an- 
thracite cannot be a metamorphosed bituminous coal. 

But let us examine the anthracite coals under the 
light of the annular theory. Again, let us suppose a 
heavy fall of annular carbon in the ^orth Atlantic 
Ocean ; and that the Appalachian Mountains were again 
under the sea. This carbon carried by the ocean cur- 

* "Amer. Cyclo., Article 'Anthracite/ " 



316 The Earth's Annular System. 

rents southward, would fall to the sea bottom in the 
more quiet waters. The heavy or anthracitic dust in 
the deep waters would reach bottom where lighter 
forms could not. Just as a log of wood, not being able 
to sink very deeply, would float to shallow waters and 
reach bottom there, while a heavier log, not being able 
to float into shallow waters, would find bottom in deeper 
seas. It is plain that if the various coals of the Ap- 
palachian field were pulverized into dust, and cast into 
Baffin's Bay, it would be carried southward along the 
coast of the American continent, and the light parti- 
cles would find a resting place nearer the coast. The 
anthracite dust would settle in deeper basins distant from 
the shores. That is, the re-arrangement of the carbon 
would necessarily be very similar to that which is now 
obtained in the Pennsylvania coals. The heavy, hard 
carbon would be planted eastward in the deeper seas, 
and the soft and light forms would be found farther 
west, ^ow I suppose all geologists will further agree 
\^ith me that before the Appalachian upheaval took 
place that the eastern base of the system, being farther 
out in the sea was in deeper waters than the western. 
How did it then so felicitously happen that the present 
arrangement of the Appalachian coals and the probable 
condition of the sea bottom accord with annular ar- 
rangement ? It is plain that if the anthracite had been 
placed in the western part of the field, the new theory 
would here have been a failure. And since we have 
here three conditions, viz., the constitution of the coal 
itself; its arrangement and assortment in the field; and 
the condition of the sea bottom — i.e., the sloping from 
the coast to the deep sea, all pointing harmoniously to 
the annular origin of these carbon beds, and finally, 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 317 

since we must find primitive anthracite in the aqueous 
crust, and also thus arranged, what need we of further 
evidence ? 

But an objector will ask: Why do the bituminous 
coals contain a greater percentage of ash ? I reply, sim- 
ply because bituminous dust not being able to settle 
directly with the anthracite remained longer in suspen- 
sion, and consequently received a greater amount of 
marine impurities. This carbon floating shorewards 
necessarily encountered more detrital matter, and be- 
ing lighter, settled more slowly, thus allowing more 
foreign matter to settle with it. Can the vegetation 
theory in any wise account for this fact ? Again, it is 
plain that if this theory be true, then the farther west- 
ward and southward the carbon had to float, the longer 
was it held in suspension, and consequently the most 
western and southwestern coals of the Appalachian sys- 
tem must contain the greatest quantity of ash. I need 
but call the reader's attention to the fact that in the re- 
cent Ohio Geological Survey,* of the 200 analyses 45 
showed over ten per cent, of ash, 120 give more than 
six per cent., and 176 exhibited a greater per cent, of 
ash than the average of American anthracites, as given 
in the American Cyclopcedia; and the average of the 
v/hole list of 200, as given by ^N". W. Lord, chemist of 
the survey, is more than seven and a half per cent., or 
two per cent, greater than the average of ten Pennsyl- 
vania bituminous coals, as found in Peale's table of 
Hayden's report of 1874 (page 177). And one per 
cent, greater than the ten samples given by Dana (page 
316), and two per cent, greater than Peale's average of 
the anthracites of the Pocky Mountains. 

• « Report for 1874," pages 1099 to 1108. 



318 The Earth's Annular System. 

If we compare the Rocky Mountain anthracites with 
the other coals in the same region * we find there the 
same evidence, proving that the former were not de- 
rived from the latter by metamorphism. 

According to this view, then, when the surveys of 
those regions shall have been completed, the coals in 
the more southern districts will prove to contain a 
greater per cent, of ash, and the heaviest beds of anthra- 
cite will be found planted in the northern part of the 
great plateau, and principally in British America. f 

This necessary rule in the division and assortment 
of coals is also interestingly illustrated in the north- 
ern medial, and more southern anthracites of the Ap- 
palachian field. As it is evident that the great inland 
sea, or bay, in which the carboniferous system of the 
AUeghenies was laid dovni, communicated eastwardly 
and northeastwardly vdth the ocean, the carbon must 
have come in from those directions. Then it is also 
evident that the more eastern and northeastern beds 
should possess the greatest specific gravity, considering 
the ash eliminated, while the western and southern beds 
would be specifically lighter with greater amount of ash 
to eliminate. 

I have but to point my readers to the well-known 
facts concerning these beds, and prove the validity of 
this position. From hundreds of localities examined 
there comes but an occasional instance where the facts 
are not entirely in harmony with this theory. But I 



•"Hayden," 1873, page 112. 

t Some years after the above conclusion was reached — i.e., that 
there must be a vast coal field in British America, the following 
paragraph went the rounds of the press: "A seam of anthracite 
coal of fine quality has been found on the Canada Pacific Hailroad 
800 miles west of Winnipeg. The seams are 14 feet thick." 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 319 

do not ask the reader to depend upon mj judgment and 
observations alone. I will again draw from the Ameri- 
can Cyclopaedia. In the analysis of Carbondale coal in 
the extreme northeast coal region, the ash is but 2.70 
per cent., the lowest of all analyses given, except one. 
The next two, one from the Lehigh district, the next im- 
portant district on the south, afford 2.77 of ash. Still 
farther southwest, in the Pottsville district, forty-two 
analyses give an average of 4.78 per cent. Still farther 
south and west in the western district the average is 
5.67. Thus taking the various coal fields of Pennsyl- 
vania in regular order, from northeast to southwest, and 
using all the analyses given (except one, exceptionally 
€mall), there is a manifest gradation in the amount of 
ash, which the annular theory imperatively demands, 
xind which the vegetation theory cannot explain. 

If this anthracite coal region should extend further 
south we would certainly expect to find a still further 
increase of ash; and in reviewing my notes I find there 
is in Southwest Virginia, in the neighborhood of Bush 
and Price's Mountains, a basin of true anthracite, evi- 
dently a prolongation of the Pennsylvania anthra- 
cites, where an analysis shows 8.30 per cent, of ash. 
This may be exceptionally large. But it is not a little 
remarkable that these analyses should so accord with 
the requirements of the new theory. ISTow the density of 
these carbon-beds is a measure of their specific gravity, 
and our theory demands that this density should in- 
crease inversely, or contrary to the above order, and 
beginning with the Virginia anthracite and proceeding 
northeast, we have the following gradation of densi- 
ties: 1.370, 1.383, 1.510, 1.554, 1.400. Is this all acci- 
dental? 



320 The Earth's Annular System. 

I cannot with advantage prolong this argument in 
the examination of foreign coals, both light and heavy. 
Enough has here been shown to cause the philosopher 
to pause and reconsider his conclusions. 

Soon after entering the devonian domain we meet 
with a widespread deposit of black carbonaceous mat- 
ter, knovni in different lands by local names, and some- 
times divided into two or three divisions, and again 
combined into one. In many places, as in some parts of 
Europe, it lies upon a conglomerate and is known as 
bituminous schists, containing remains of fishes. In 
various parts of North America it is distinguished by 
its bituminous or oily character, and claimed by some 
to be the chief source of the oil flow. But be this as it 
may, it is a dark or black carbonaceous deposit, and of 
course it is claimed by geologists that the carbon is of 
organic origin. Now we have not here the direct and 
positive means of disproving this claim as we had in the 
formation of graphite, for here we have organisms, both 
animal and vegetable, which contain carbon. It is evi- 
dent that if a deposit is carbonaceous hecause of the 
presence of vegetable remains, the greater the quantity 
of vegetation it contains the greater the amount of car- 
bonaceous matter it contains. Now nature will vindi- 
cate herself. It so happens that these black shales are 
not nearly so profusely filled with fossils as the rocks 
either above or below them. So far as my own observa- 
tion extends the more highly bituminous these rocks 
are the greater is the paucity of fossils. Dana says: * 
" The Hamilton black shale is almost destitute of fos- 
sils, and very bituminous." Again, in speaking of the 
Marcellus division of the black shale, he says (p. 271): 

* " Manual," page 275. 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 321 

" The black shales contain but few fossils." But in the 
face of all this he says (p. 268): "The carbonaceous 
material of the black Marcellus shale is of organic ori- 
gin," and also adds that it has not yet been ascertained 
whether it is due to sea-weeds or land-plants, or partly 
to fishes or other animals. 

!N'ow it so happens that in these shales sometimes fos- 
sils are well preserved, and their preservation in abund- 
ance in the associated beds proves there was an abund- 
ant land vegetation during the time these shales accu- 
mulated. There were lycopods, ferns and equiseta, 
and some of the lower orders of phsenogams. There 
were more than forty species of ferns alone. We find 
them in abundance in such associations as to show that 
they are there simply near shore deposits. But in these 
very places the shales are less bituminous, l^ow if 
these plants produced the carbonaceous or bituminous 
products in the shales, why are not the associated beds, 
which contain a greater profusion of organic matter, 
themselves bituminous ? These dark deposits are wide- 
spread, and it seems impossible to refer them to an or- 
ganic origin. 

Again, when we come higher up in the series we ^d 
a great number of dark or black carbonaceous beds, 
and, as we generally find that these are only expansions 
and prolongations of coal seams, their origin becomes, 
apparent. Prof. Andrews has said: * " Every stratum 
of bituminous shale in our productive coal measures im- 
plies the existence of a coal marsh on the same proximate 
horizon, and should always be noted and studied with 
this fact in mind." He also states that these slates and 
shales were probably formed out of " carbonaceous 

• " Ohio Reports, 1873," Vol. I., page 357. 



322 The EarWs Annular System. 

mud that did not go to form cannel coal, but was floated 
away by currents and mingled with mineral sediments." 
I would like the vegetarian to state how the waters car- 
ried the carbon away from the marsh, forming on the 
" same proximate horizon," and first made a cannel de- 
posit, and continuing to float a part of this carbon, and, 
on the " same proximate horizon," made bituminous 
shales, without the waters of the seas involving that 
whole horizon ! Again, I would like to learn from what 
proximate horizon the Marcellus shales, and their con- 
temporary carbonaceous beds of other continents, de- 
rived their floating carbon. 

If the primitive carbon theory be allowed to explain 
there seems to be no mystery. Carbon that fell in the 
water and floated directly to its resting place without 
coming in contact with much detrital matter became 
a bed of pure coal. The finer particles of carbon-dust 
meeting with a small amount of foreign or floating par- 
ticles of clay, would likely form splint coal; a larger 
amount of clay would form cannel coal, and in the same 
horizon a part of the carbon meeting with an abundance 
of other matter would form black slates and shales. 

There is another feature in coal that requires a brief 
notice. I have referred to the well-known fact that fos- 
sil plants in coal are generally mineralized charcoal, and 
diflficult of combustion. If the bed were bodily a vege- 
table production the same diflSculty would certainly 
characterize the mass, and we are therefore compelled 
to admit that the plant is simply a foreign body in a 
bed of mineral carbon, and is itself a mineralized car- 
bon fossil simply because it is in that bed ! In short, 
we are forced to look beyond the plant for the origin of 
the bed. 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 323 

Again, mineral charcoal, so frequently found in some 
coal seams, contains much less percentage of ash than 
the mineral coal itself. The charcoal frequently an- 
alyzes from one to one-and-a-quarter per cent., and 
sometimes as low as three-quarters of one per cent. 
That is, the part of a coal seam known to be vegetation 
is so free from ash as to argue the inconsistency of 
claiming that the whole bed is a vegetation. 

Again, the surface of a coal seam is sometimes 
covered with undulations akin to ripple-marks. The 
roof of coal, in some instances in coal mines, plainly 
indicate that the clays or sand were deposited on a 
ripple-marked surface, and these undulations are some- 
times seen on the face of the coal. These things lead 
us to conclude that such beds are aqueous sediments.* 

To show some of the inequalities and lack of paral- 
lelism of coal beds I quote from Prof. Andrews in the 
Ohio Survey (vol. L, page 352): "In one case within 
the area of a county where there were five seams of 
coal in the vertical series the intervals between each 
two consecutive seams are given. The published fig- 
ures show that in the subsidence, before the second 
seam from the bottom was formed, the originally hori- 
zontal plane of the bottom seam had sunk to depths 

•Though somewhat out of its proper place, I will call the 
reader's attention to the well-established fact that some of the 
limestones of the silurian series are distinctly marked with wave- 
lines or ripple-marks. In the well-known blue limestone beds 
of the great Cincinnati uplift, are many such undulating layers 
of wide extent. The mass seems as though it had been thrown 
into innumerable ridges of from two to six inches high, and when 
a thin stratum has this peculiarity, the bottom of the furrow 
thins out, and sometimes disappears. The ridges generally have 
a uniform direction. These things certainly show that the blue 
lime strata of the silurian were not deep sea deposits, but actual 
mechanical sediments, deposited in waters so shallow that waves 
and currents molded the sea bottom. Hence, the annular origin 
of these lime beds is apparent. 



324 2'he Earth's Annular System, 

varying from 34 to 87 feet; before the third seam was 
formed the second horizontal plane of coal had sunk ir- 
regularly to depths varying from 47 to 149 feet; the 
third plane of coal in turn settled down in some places 
31 feet, and in others 69 feet, before the fourth seam 
was laid down, while the plane of the fourth was found 
to show an irregular subsidence of from 13 to 40 feet 
before the fifth and highest marsh appeared with its 
luxuriant vegetation. ... If these figures represent 
facts, they, with all facts, however stubborn, have their 
rights. These facts, however, appear to me to have un- 
usual stubbornness. ''^ (Italics mine.) The Professor 
goes on to say that such facts are " barely possible," and 
this must be the conclusion of every philosophic geolo- 
gist — such irregular subsidence is in fact impossible 
over such small areas. Again, in alluding to the pos- 
sible elevation of a coal seam whereby it would form a 
highland, where rivers might wash out the coal, he 
says : ^' So far as my observations go, there is not a 
shadow of proof of any such upheaval during the prog- 
ress of the formation of our coal seams, but, on the 
other hand, all observed facts militate against such a 
supposition.'' This illustrious man saw plainly that the 
swamp theory of coal formation did not admit of such 
a supposition. But it is plain that such irregular sub- 
sidence and re-elevation must produce some highlands. 
But as highlands did not exist in the coal marshes, as 
Andrews avers, we have no alternative but to admit 
that the coal is a sedimentary deposit on the irregular 
and uneven floor of the sea. 

In some places fragments of solid coal have been torn 
from a seam and carried by currents and deposited but 
a few feet above the same coal seam from which they 



8ome Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 325 

were derived, showing that the seam had hardened 
directly after it had been deposited. Now peat beds, 
after being deeply buried for ages, remain so soft as to 
be easily carved with the shovel. 

The late surveys in different States have revealed 
the fact that a coal seam has become so solid as to be 
planed off as smooth as a board, by eroding agencies, 
directly after it was laid down, or before heavy beds 
had accumulated upon it. These things bear witness 
to the fact that such seams are not vegetable peat 
formations. 

Geologists are all aware that vast beds of carbon 
were deposited during some of the epochs of the ter- 
tiary and cretaceous periods. The cretaceous was the 
last period of the age of reptilian monsters, and the 
tertiary the next succeeding period — when the ances- 
tors of our mammalian races came upon the scene. 
Both periods were characterized by great carbon falls. 
Extensive coal beds in Asia are probably of the cre- 
taceous period; while the vast carbon beds among the 
Rocky Mountains, and underlying the vast plains to the 
east of those mountains, were formed in the tertiary 
period. I will not crowd these pages with a considera- 
tion of these later coal formations, in other continents, 
but confine our investigation to the so-called lignites of 
the Cordilleras. 

If it could be shown that the great Rocky Mountain 
plateau, on which the coal beds are planted, did not 
exist as the sea bottom — over which the waters from 
the arctic world rolled during the tertiary period — 
then here the annular theory would meet with a re- 
pulse; but it is well known that during that long era of 
stupendous changes the Rocky Mountain region 



326 The EartVs Annular System. 

throughout its entire length and breadth was sleeping 
in the sea; the ocean's waves then rolled over some of 
its highest peaks, and the great canyons that interweave 
that vast region have been made by devouring streams 
since the coal beds were formed. The tertiary beds 
reach from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, proving that 
currents ran toward the equator along the valley of the 
Mackenzie, bearing into southern waters whatever fell 
from the upper world. This, it may be said, is a fact 
well known to geologists. It is easy, then, to under- 
stand how the vast expanse of this western world be- 
came the receptacle of tertiary carbon; while the dove- 
tailing of these two facts — that there is tertiary carbon 
there, and that a great tertiary strait poured its waters 
southward from the Polar sea — lends strength to the 
claims I have made. Turning now to the eastern bor- 
der, and finding no tertiary coals there, we are led to 
believe that a narrow continent stretched from America 
to Europe, across the present bed of the Atlantic, thus 
hindering the southern flow of carbon along the Atlan- 
tic sea-board. It is now very fully conceded by geolo- 
gists that through the tertiary epochs such an isthmus 
of land reached from Newfoundland to the shores of 
Europe; if this be true, what a fund of tertiary carbon 
must lie at the bottom of the North Atlantic ! There is 
every reason for believing that if these later coals had 
been formed out of vegetation growing in great conti- 
nental swamps, that the same opportunity was offered 
by the Eastern sea border for this swamp vegetation. 
How true, then, the claim formerly made that before 
a peat-forming vegetation could grow its foundation 
bed must first be laid down ! Indeed, if there be such 
a universal tendency for the formation of peat-coal, as 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 327 

geologists must claim, if coal really was formed in that 
way, the long stretch of coast from Long Island to the 
Kio Grande presented a great opportunity for the 
formation of some tertiary coal. Why is it not there ? 
The question then presents itself; How did it happen 
that at the very time our theory necessitated a chance 
for the flow of carbon from northern waters, an oppor- 
tunity was given, just where and just when it wa3 re- 
quired — ^i.e., over the slope of British America, and 
when the coal beds were forming? And again, since 
the absence of these coals on the eastern border of the 
continent forces the annular theory to demand a bar- 
rier across the flood ground from the north, why did 
this barrier come just where and just when it was 
needed to support the theory ? These, it is true, are 
minor links of evidences, but they are links none the 



It must be within the comprehension of every reader 
that if the vast fund of lignitic coals is a vegetable pro- 
duction, it was present in the tertiary atmosphere as a 
deadly poison. JS'ow look at the immensity of the coal 
field at present known to geologists, while every search 
extends its known limits, and if possible conceive what 
an atmosphere that was. Turn to the waters of the 
cretaceous seas and behold them filled with breathing 
animals, and, if possible, reconcile these facts: — An 
atmosphere in the highest degree destructive to life ; an 
ocean filled with fishes and reptiles — in many instances 
there were fishes akin to those of our own time, the 
recent order of teliosts had ancestral representatives in 
the cretaceous and tertiary seas; there were sharks like 
the modem squalodonts, including our salmon and 
perch; in the same seas was the populous kingdom of 



328 2'he Earth's Annular System. 

reptilian monsters, terrible monarchs of the watery do- 
main, snakes twenty feet in length; the great whale-like 
zeuglodon, seventy or more feet in length; the shark- 
like carcharadon, with teeth more than half a foot 
long, and five inches broad at the base. Turtles lived 
on the shores and mud-flats, so large that they would 
outweigh the largest ox of this age. Reptiles of the 
higher grades, such as the ichthyosauri, combining the 
several forms of the whale, fish, lizard and crocodile ; the 
plesiosauri, with the body of a porpoise, the flippers of 
a whale, the neck of a swan and the head of a serpent. 
These air-breathing animals in vast armies swam the 
ocean world, with hundreds of other species whose hab- 
itat was the waters. But more than all other recepta- 
cles of carbonic anhydride — or the very poison the 
plant required — the ocean, by its wonderful powers of 
absorption, must have been totally unfit for either 
fishes or amphibians; and while we know that at the 
very time the vast deposits of tertiary coals were being 
made, in addition to the ocean fauna the mammalian 
types of the present races in mighty hordes possessed 
the land surface, and which could not have lived in 
such an atmosphere as the vegetation theory requires — 
can we possibly reconcile these inconsistencies? A 
coal-forming age, on a world of abounding life, means 
the absolute abrogation of law, so long as we admit 
coal to be the product of the plant, any more than it is 
to-day. 

It is plain that the tertiary earth was in all other re- 
spects a perfected world. Fountains leaped from the 
hillsides; rills and rivers ran to the seas. Birds flew 
in air; flowers clothed the plain and variegated the for- 
est. Man might have lived then as now. The un- 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 339 

wieldy animals, of more than elephantine bulk, argue 
a heavy atmosphere, which in turn argues upper aerial 
matter on its way to the earth, which, in fact, is the 
very thing our theory demands. 

Set vast continental marshes to work in the distilla- 
tion of carbon, how quickly it would exhaust the atmos- 
pheric carbon now present as plant food ! Then where 
would the peat-bog look for more to continue the 
process ? From the decay of vegetation of course ! But 
here the millepore fiasco appears again. Vegetation 
must decay in order that it should produce plant food 
for vegetation. This we can all see very plainly. But 
this does not account for the carbon that did not decay 
— that which is stored away as carbon. Here, then, 
we are forced to look beyond the plant food in the at- 
mosphere for the deposited carbon. Did it come from 
the tertiary volcanoes and solfataras as unconsumed 
carbon ? If so it must have used up the free oxygen in 
the air, and thus have robbed the animal kingdom, 
which the record denies. Then we are forced to admit 
that this plant food came during tertiary times, as 
poisonous carbonic anhydride, directly from the inter- 
nal fires of the earth. But this means universal death 
at the very time the world was peopled. It means, too, 
that the oceans were bodies of acidulated waters, and 
not all alkaline, as they are to-day; and this means the 
dissolution of all forms in which lime was a component 
part, and this the record also denies. What a tribu- 
lated path the vegetarian must lead ! Besides all these 
insurmountable difficulties it must have been a very 
accommodating and felicitous circumstance that the 
world should produce this plant food at the time so 
much of its surface was a swamp marsh; that it should 



330 The Earth's Annular System. 

fail to feed the swamp vegetation of the tropics, or even 
that which grew in higher latitudes, provided it was not 
located where it was chilled and bathed by polar 
waters. 

There are some simple facts which in the philosophic 
mind must be strong witnesses against the old theory 
and which the geologist has scarcely yet noticed. Sup- 
pose we should take a common limestone and saturate 
it with coal-oil — such a thing can be readily done under 
great pressure — we will then have a hituminous lime' 
stone, just such as exists in great beds low down in the 
bosom of the earth. If now we subject our saturated 
stone to great heat we can soon burn out the oil and the 
limestone will remain solid as before. !N"ot so with the 
nature-formed bituminous stone. Subject it to the 
same degree of heat, the oil burns out, but the stone is 
reduced to impalpable powder. Let us look at this a 
little more particularly. These limestones thus nat- 
urally formed are made up of calcareous particles ce- 
mented together by bituminous or asphaltic matter. 
When there is but a small amount of the bitumen in it 
the rock is hard and solid, but when it consists of 25 
per cent, of the mass, as it frequently does, it is so soft 
as to be easily carved with a knife. Again, it is some- 
times found as pure bitumen, in isolated patches or 
pockets in the body of the Hmestone. ITow, as the Hme- 
stone is an aqueous rock, we must conclude that the 
carbon matter it contains is also ! 

'Not long since a company of Frenchmen successfully 
impregnated solid limestone with bitumen for asphaltic 
pavements. But heat would drive out the bitumen and 
leave the stone hard and solid. !N'ow this seems to con- 
clusively prove that the bitumen was not a cement in 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 331 

this case, for, as stated before^ when the bituminous 
stone from the quarry was subjected to heat, the bitu- 
men was also expelled, but the limestone reduced to 
powder. Does it not prove that in the latter case the 
bitumen was a cement? It does prove without doubt 
that the lime particles and the carbon particles were de- 
posited together in the same mass ! And as the lime- 
stone was matter in the sea, so was the former. Hence, 
so far as asphaltic carbon is concerned, we see it can- 
not be a vegetable product, since we must look beyond 
the limestone bed for its origin. 

The " pocketed " bitumen is found in stratified 
seams, and, as both the carbon and the calcareous par- 
ticles settled together to form the stone, we can readily 
understand how the assorting power of currents could 
separate them and form occasional beds of pure bitu- 
men. 

Another feature in connection with the anthracites 
might be mentioned here, although a little out of its 
proper place. Quoting from the American Cyclopae- 
dia will serve to show how utterly baseless the meta- 
morphic theory is: " Prof. H. D. Kogers explains the 
formation of anthracite by supposing it to be the result 
of altered bituminous coal, by heat induced subsequent 
to the formation of the bituminous beds; and he fur- 
ther explains the escape of the volatile portion of the 
latter as gas through cracks and openings formed by 
plication. This plication follows closely the general 
type of the eastern paleozoic rocks which are intensely 
crushed and folded near the contact of their edges with 
the igneous or granitic rocks, and much less plicated 
and contorted in a western direction." But this beau- 
tiful picture is badly spoiled by the eminent collators 



333 The Earth's Annular System. 

of the Cyclopaedia, who, in commentiiig upon these 
views, say: ^' The facts do not sustain the theory! 
First, the upper beds and strata are more distorted and 
dislocated than the lower ones, etc. Second, the meas- 
ures are more plicated and crushed in the western than 
at the eastern extremity: yet the coal of the latter is a 
dense hard anthracite, while that of the former is semi- 
bituminous.'' It is scarcely necessary for me to add 
another word on metamorphism, except to say that 
these facts just stated are precisely what the annular 
theory claims. If they were otherwise the theory would 
necessarily fail ! A theory that fails in one point is a 
complete failure. Hence, metamorphism, having failed 
in the most essential particulars, is a complete failure. 

Then, briefly summarizing, let us see how the coal 
problem now must stand in the eyes of the law: 

1st. The plant, when subjected to a proper mode of 
destructive distillation, is made to yield carbon in vari- 
ous allotropic forms. So it is with a limestone, or any 
other mineral that has carbon as a part of its constitu- 
tion. The earth was made of such minerals to an enor- 
mous extent, and these were subjected to such a de- 
structive distillation during the igneous era; and, there- 
fore, these forms of carbon were placed in the earth's 
crust, and placed there after the primitive fires died 
out. 

2d. All such primitive distillations existed in the at- 
mosphere of the incandescent earth, which, upon cool- 
ing and condensing, formed a part and parcel of the 
earth's annular system, of meteoric and vaporous 
matter. 

3d. This matter, as it declined and commingled with 
the true atmosphere of after ages, changed from the 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 333 

ring into the belt-form and over-canopied the earth in 
its efforts to reach its surface, and consequently fell 
largely in regions outside of the tropics. 

4th. The heaviest form of carbon fell largely in the 
earliest ages; though all sections of the system must 
have had some of each form, the outer sections must 
have possessed the largest part of the light forms of 
carbon, and the inmost sections the largest part of the 
heaviest forms. 

6th. Thus all ages v^^ere more or less characterized 
by carbon falls, and no age could be exclusively car- 
boniferous. 

6th. Carbon, falling into the ocean directly, would 
separate into lighter and heavier forms and settle ac- 
cordingly in higher and lower elevations (shallower 
and deeper parts) of the sea, thus explaining why differ- 
ent forms of coal are found frequently on the same 
proximate horizon. 

7th. The earliest or heaviest forms are free from or- 
ganic remains, and must, therefore, be a primitive dis- 
tillation; and the other carbon beds, by their associated 
strata, by their involved vegetation and other organ- 
isms, by accompanying clay-partings, by involved gla- 
cial drift, by latitudinal gradation in quantity of ash 
and specific gravity, by their characteristic absence 
from the tropics and heavy deposits in higher latitudes, 
by synchronous formation in all continents, by their 
evident formation in the very lap and bosom of the 
glacier — amid ice and flood; by the fact that they are 
bituminous, oily hydro-carbons, and by a multitude of 
inconsistencies and impossibilities involved in the vege- 
tation theory, have been shown to be actual sediment- 
ary deposits, and therefore a primitive product. 



334 The Earths Annular System. 

It has been my lot to pass the greater part of my life 
among coal veins and coal mines. When a boy I was 
a coal-digger in my father's coal bank, and my eyes 
have seen the evidence embodied in this volume, and 
much more that I cannot use here ; and though brought 
up in the vegetarian school, and a full believer in that 
doctrine, till forced to denounce it by cumulative and 
crushing testimony, I must say I have never seen, in the 
hundreds of coal veins I have carefully examined, one 
jot of evidence that would lead a philosophic geologist 
to say it did not evince aqueous deposition. Since 
then there is not so much as one feature connected with 
the formation of coal that is not readily explainable by 
the primitive carbon theory; not one that philosophic 
law does not resolve into harmony with annular declen- 
sion, without even the show of conflict; and since vege- 
tarians are forever stumbling upon inexplicable diffi- 
culties, boulders, pebbles, pockets, doubling of coal- 
beds, undulations, slopes, ripple-marks, clay-partings, 
cannel coal inseparably joined with bituminous coal, 
anthracites with less amount of ash, marine impurities, 
carbon planted in archsean beds, air-breathing animals 
among tertiary coals, carbon dredged from the ocean, 
dug from the frozen world, and innumerable other ob- 
jections over which they cannot climb, I am free to say 
to my brother geologists : Come to this new field ! The 
vegetation theory cannot be true! You all know full 
well that these stubborn facts are continually multiply- 
ing, and before many years roll around you must know 
full well that normal world-evolution is annular declen- 
sion. Deny this, and you then must deny primitive 
igneous action. 

It was not until after many years of an effort to ex- 



Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence. 335 

plain these difficulties upon the old theory that I con- 
sented to connect it with annular matter; but when 
once placed upon this new foundation every difficulty 
vanished, and investigators must soon take up the coal 
question, thus imperfectly treated in these chapters, and 
Ibring inexpressible beauty out of confusion. 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

OIL, GAS AK^D OTHER CAEBONS. 

We now come to the consideration of those com- 
pounds which above all others stand as monumental 
witnesses of the primitive origin of the carbon forms 
now stored in the earth's crust. It is well known that 
the bitumen in its rocky matrix, when subjected to suf- 
ficient heat, is driven out as an edud, not as a product 
of the rock. Being an educt, we must look beyond the 
rock for its origin, and where else can we look but back 
into the igneous earth, which, millions of years before 
a fish swam the ocean, or a plant rooted in the soil, had 
entire and complete control of all the carbon in the 
planet ? 

When we take the sooty carbon from our chimneys 
and make it yield oil, asphalt and graphite, it would be 
difficult for the intelligent chemist to understand how 
the primitive earth fires could elaborate this planetary 
carbon into anything else than the very forms now 
locked in the strata of the world. How can the geolo- 
gist get around or over this rock, when he knows as well 
as any one that it was the legitimate business of the 
primitive heat to make hydro-carbons as we find them 
to-day ? It is not so much a question as to what pro- 
duced these carbons as to how a molten world consti- 
tuted as ours is could avoid producing them. 

What nature has made in measureless quantities, and 
is yet, as a puny offspring, of an exhaustless energy, 
making under favorable and possible conditions, man, 



Oil, Gas and Other Carious. SZHf 

with his accumulated and growing knowledge of chemi- 
cal laws, can make in his laboratory. He can take the 
living mollusk, or fish, or the human body, or any other 
organism, animal or vegetable, and subject it to heat in 
his retort and make all the carbons that were made in 
the molten earth. But while he can do this, he has no 
right to conclude that because he can thus manipulate 
organic matter the carbons and hydro-carbons of the 
earth were derived from fishes and moUusks. It should 
not be forgotten that all organic matter is in part an 
ultimate derivative from and of the molten earth. Rep- 
tiles, lobsters and fishes, as well as the plant, are to all 
intents already hydro-carbons at hand for the chemist 
to elaborate into anthracite, asphalt and petroleum, 
and the innumerable other carbon forms. Chemists 
have made bitumen from fish oil, and paper and shavings 
of wood answer the same purpose ; and he need not stop 
there, for any organic oil will fill its place. If fishes and 
plants are to have the credit of making the vast hoards 
of oil in the earth, why not conclude that the different 
kinds of fish and different kinds of plants made the dif- 
ferent kinds of oil. Of course the olive plant could not 
make fish oil. 

The simple fact that in thousands of laboratories 
these liquid and solid distillates are being formed to-day 
by artificial means ought to lead the scientist to con- 
clude that the molten earth, with all the carbon, hydro- 
gen and oxygen right at hand, could not have failed to 
fill itself with these crude distillates. The grand op- 
portunity thus afforded could not have been shunned, 
and the chemist to-day redistills what the primitive fire 
placed within his reach; and this is just what the animal 
and the plant have been doing all the time in the 



338 The EarWs Annular System. 

scheme of world-making. In the artificial manufacture 
of creosote and carbolic acid man has exhibited but lit- 
tle more skill than Dame !N"ature. The latter, having 
had the monopoly in oil making, accidentally, as it 
were, gave her survivals an opportunity to continue 
what she had well nigh completed in the igneous age. 

The organic oils are not the only source from which 
hydro-carbons can be obtained. Limestones and all the 
carbonates, when subjected to dissolving heat and 
moisture, will yield the asphaltic compounds and oily 
distillates. If the various forms of bitumen are readily- 
formed from animal and vegetable matter, under a mod- 
erate degree of heat, a higher degree of heat will pro- 
duce the more refractory compounds, as gilsanite, 
graphite, etc. All the residual compounds, such as re- 
main last in the chemist's retort, are simply these more 
refractory compounds. K^ature left these residuals as 
the asphalts, graphites, etc. Besides the carbon and 
hydrogen in the asphalts, many of them contain other 
elements, as sulphur, nitrogen and mineral ash. 

I have in my laboratory a specimen of residual car- 
bon taken from the laurentian beds near Toronto, Can- 
ada. It is in a high degree crystalline, bright and 
glossy, and burns as readily as anthracite, leaving the 
merest trace of ash. If geologists must insist that this 
is a product of an ancient vegetation, where not a trace 
of a plant can be found, when every one must admit 
that such a product must contain more abundant ash, 
I can with a thousand times more reason insist that this 
crystalline fuel is a residual product of the reducing 
fires that sent oily vapors to the skies millions of years 
before the earth could support a plant. The thinker ia 
forced to admit that even the plant could never have 



Oil J Gas and Other Carbons. 339 

existed and entered upon its survival work, if these car- 
bons had not been gathered from the earth's inmost 
depths by reducing heat, and why in the name of rea- 
son the plant, as an actual result and product of primi- 
tive heat, should be made to do all this antecedent work 
in addition to its legitimate labors is indeed strange. 
Why should the plant present the fire-gathered carbon 
as a secondary or inadequate distillation, when, as all 
must know, the first one was a million times more com- 
petent and certain in its work ? Why have men so long 
closed their eyes to the fact that all present energies, all 
present world-processes, are but dying efforts, and can 
in no sense compare with the Titanic labors of the pri- 
meval earth. 

There was a day when the world-heat was heginning 
— a day when the reducing fires were starting on their 
grand career of world-making. In that day the young 
earth could no more avoid the evolution of the lighter 
and readily formed hydro-carbons than the artificial 
furnace can avoid it now. With a heat of less than 
200° Cent, fuel gas comes from the chemist's retort to- 
day, and I assume such tractable products arose from 
the earth's initial fires, and as sure as fate they went 
to the skies along with other steaming vapors. 

As the earth-fires progressed and the heat became 
more intense other and heavier products arose, until in 
the course of eons the world shone as a star, with a 
glowing ocean of unconsumed fuel. During all that im- 
measurable lapse of time, let us remember, all these 
fiery sublimations were being assorted by their affinities 
and gravital tendencies. The lightest forms would 
float the highest and arrange themselves in the outer- 
most rings of the system, and as a matter of course they 



340 The EartWs Annular System. 

would be the last to descend, and these must be found 
to-day placed in the uppermost crust of the earth. The 
heaviest forms of carbon, such as the graphite, would 
ride the lowest in the fiery envelope and fall early in 
the geologic past, and must be found in the oldest beds. 
Is it necessary for me to more than tell the fact that 
these carbons forms are found just as this orderly 
scheme demands? The heaviest graphitic masses are 
met with in the oldest beds only, and the lighter are lo- 
cated away above them. 

The heaviest distillations fell back upon a hot but 
cooling core, and as these all had passed through the 
fire test everything with them must be incombustible in 
ordinary heat, and we all know what crucibles of 
graphite are capable of. Rocks of these oldest forma- 
tions, as all can see, are not fusible by any ordinary 
heat simply because they have passed through a higher 
heat test. Will the old school tell us why and how the 
readily fused rocks are thus separated from the more 
refractory? Why have ages separated them? Annu- 
lar world evolution only can explain it and tell how and 
why ! It mil be well to inquire somewhat into the 
primitive deportment of the oily carbons. During the 
great oil excitement in the Ohio Valley, when wells 
were being drilled all along the upper branches of the 
river, many of these overflowed and ran down into the 
river channel. When the waters of the river were clear 
this oil spread over a vast surface, but it was frequently 
observed that during freshets, when muddy water came 
down the channel, the oil on the surface of the stream 
rapidly disappeared. It was found mixed with the fine 
mud particles — clay, lime, etc. — and sunk to the bottom 
of the stream. In other words, it was found that petro- 



Oil, Gas and Other Carbons. 341 

leum — oily carbon — had at least a mechanical affinity 
for lime and clay particles. If this affinity exists to- 
day then it existed in the igneous period. When clay 
and lime in measureless quantities went from the world 
furnace, as sublimated dust or fine mist, into the very 
region of oily carbons, and if the latter would saturate 
these particles in the Ohio River, we can see how their 
combination occurred amid annular conditions. 

When the maker of artificial gas puts carbon into his 
retort, raises the heat, he soon discovers how light 
hydro-carbon gas readily escapes with a moderate heat, 
and to enrich this escaping fuel he soon tightens down 
the valve and injects watery vapor into the retort. This 
not only enriches his illuminant, but greatly increases 
the amount of it. Thus we still further familiarize our- 
selves with the deportment of the hydro-carbons. We 
learn that if watery vapor improves the quality and in- 
creases the quantity of forming hydro-carbons in an 
artificial furnace, it would do the same thing in the fires 
of the molten earth. 

When the newly-formed hydro-carbons arose to the 
skies they mingled with the steaming waters formed in 
the same fires. They not only grew more oily by chem- 
ical union, but the quantity was vastly increased, and 
these oily compounds in turn mingled and mixed me- 
chanically with the fiery mist and dust about them, and 
when these mechanical mixtures returned to the earth's 
crust again they became in course of time oil-bearing 
rock, just such as is now found in the bed of the Ohio 
river. 

Any one can see the necessary deductions from these 
experiments and practical lessons. We know that there 
is oil-bearing rock in the crust of the earth, and we 



342 The Earth's Annular System. 

know that its quality and its quantity and its position 
forever exclude the animal and the plant from having 
any more part in its formation than they now have to- 
day, and no one that has a particle of regard for testi- 
mony will attempt to confer the grand offices of world- 
making upon them now. 

As I write these lines there are ten thousand wells in 
the United States, each pouring forth from ten to ten 
hundred barrels of oil per day, and in some places there 
are from ^Ye to ten flowing wells on an acre of ground, 
and the very thought that organic matter gave this won- 
drous hoard is too wantonly silly to enter so pure a 
realm as that of human reason. Then, too, those other 
amazing oil fields of the old world ! All this — and yet 
the amount now in view is but a trifle compared with 
that hidden away in lands where the drill has not ven- 
tured. Amid the tropic jungles, under seas and oceans, 
in lands eternally locked in ice and snow, the same fire- 
formed rocks are filled with this fire-formed fuel. 

The intelligent gas maker very well knows that the 
imion of hot carbon with the elements of steam super- 
heated, makes a fuel when locked away from the attacks 
of atmospheric oxygen, and that the amount of this fuel 
depends upon the amount of carbon and steam. Then, 
too, the well-known fact that this fuel was not consumed 
in its infancy is all the proof we need that the oxygen 
of the primitive earth found more active affinities in 
other elements, so that the original hydro-carbons were 
locked away from its ravages. 

The scientist knows how the oxygen must be shut off 
from his retort in order to form an illuminant, or fuel, 
and consequently this question faces the old school: 
How was the oxygen barred from the vegetable car- 



Oil, Gas and Other Carious. 343 

bon ? How did the organism decay in the silurian age 
and escape utter combustion any more than it does to- 
day ? 

Did the reader ever see how spontaneous combustion 
has consumed the piles of " slack " at the openings of 
coal mines ? Did he ever hear of the many disastrous 
fires occasioned by spontaneous combustion in coal piles 
and even piles of soot? Oxygen is accountable for 
these fires, and if it does such things now, after the fuel 
is formed and locked up, why did it not attend to its 
oflfices and complete its work when it had ample oppor- 
tunity to do so? When a plant or animal dies how 
often is it sealed away, as in a retort, in order to escape 
the devourer and become a fuel ? This uncertainty di- 
minishes the opportunity to form gas and oil rock a 
thousand fold; and, as I see it, precious little of it was 
ever formed as the old school claims. Then, again, in 
the transition from the oil form to the bitumen or 
asphaltic compounds and fireproof graphite, how did it 
escape combustion? I see no possible escape from the 
conclusion that the fires of the igneous earth formed all 
the hydro-carbons, sent them to the terrestrial heavens 
and let them down in world order and covered them up 
as centuries rolled by. In the world's retort was a vast 
ocean of superheated steam, as well as an unlimited fund 
of carbon, and if they did not form a fuel, as the fires of 
to-day form smoke and soot, then law did not operate. 
The order of these carbons, as they occupy their places 
in the super-crust, is an everlasting support of the new 
theory, and scientists may as well concede the fact now 
or banish the thought of a molten earth, which they 
actually do, more or less, when they advocate the claim 
that petroleum is a species of fish oil. Was the molten 



344 The Earth's Annular System. 

earth incompetent to produce the oils out of the ma- 
terial so abundantly on hand at that time ? Why, the 
molten earth could not have made plant food without 
making fuel! They are inevitable associates now, and 
they must have been fire-born companions then. Plant 
food, which made it possible for vegetation to exist, was 
a collateral product of the same crucible that formed 
the oceans and the fuel of the world, and it is just as 
reasonable to claim that the plant formed all the waters 
of the earth as all the fuel. The animal and the plant 
are survival products of survival forces in this world 
scheme of fuel forming, and all they ever did or could 
do in the way of fuel forming must be a survival 
product. 

Knowing, then, that the first office of the world-fires 
was the formation of vast oceans of watery vapors, filled 
with all the mineral sublimations that heat could expel 
from the globe to the skies, and that chief among these 
fiery distillates were oily hydro-carbons, we cannot 
avoid the conclusion that these must be found on and 
within the earth's crust. Knowing that the oily com- 
pounds went into the skies and formed a part of the 
earth's annular system, we ought to find oil-bearing 
rock of different ages and at different depths from the 
surface. Keason ought to lead the thinker to conclude 
that the oil-bearing rocks and the coal-bearing rocks 
would be one and the same — all together,^ if vegetation 
gave them origin. What, then, must we conclude when 
we find that such is not the case ? The annular student 
expects to find them in annular order, and when he 
finds them thus arranged in the earth's crust he will- 
ingly leaves the problem in other hands, for the evolu- 
tion of truth will show who is right. 



Oil, Gas and Other Carious. 345 

Oilj products sent up by moderate heat from the 
great world-maker's retort arose much higher in the 
primeval atmosphere than those which were expelled 
with raging and excessive heat. The heaviest and most 
refractory carbon would ride lowest and the lightest 
would ride highest in the great ocean of fiery sublima- 
tions, and in the inevitable formation of world-rings 
these carbon forms, mixing with their natural associates, 
would find their level in the annular system and main- 
tain it in all time. Those in the lowest rings would fall 
first, and as a pure result they would take up their final 
rest amid the older rocks. Those in the higher rings 
would fall later and become locked up in the later- 
formed beds, and oil should be found on all continents. 

!N^ow, what are the well-known facts in the case ? Oil 
found on all continents — we might say in almost every 
land — and new oil fields being continually opened, leads 
to the conclusion that it is everywhere. Its extent is so 
great at least as to stultify all claims that it could be of 
organic origin. Then, again, when we reflect that the 
hydro-carbons, like all other primitive heat products, 
fell to the earth from about the polar skies, we would 
expect to find oil fields under the frozen circles; and if 
half the reports from those frozen climes be true, this 
point is also settled. And considering how readily 
ocean currents can transport such matter toward the 
equator, we would look to see equatorial beds well filled 
with hydro-carbons, and such pitch lakes as are found 
near the equator are witnesses in court. Then, too, we 
find the greatest oil beds of the world away below the 
coal beds. The Trenton lime rock, from which such a 
vast amount of oil now comes in the United States, is 
located away down amid the silurian beds, among strata 



346 TAe Earth's Annular System. 

that are in no way remarkable for their organic re- 
mains. 

The formation of oily compounds must have taken 
place to some extent in the lofty primeval atmosphere, 
wherever glowing carbon came in contact with super- 
heated steam, which must have existed in all parts of 
the earth's primitive envelope. In the same region 
where these changes were going on the appetite of oxy- 
gen for calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, etc., so 
largely robbed the carbon of its natural share of oxygen 
that the former as a pure result was left as an uncon- 
sumed fuel, and as I see it this is just the reason we 
have so much unburnt carbon in the earth, and I can see 
no other way to account for the fact that oxygen, ever 
alert and active, did not consume every atom of carbon 
in the earth. If the carbon had come in contact with 
free oxygen, as it does to-day in the atmosphere, there 
would now be no coal or petroleum to tell the tale, and 
the old-school geologist might continue to ride the 
world. 

The vigor of free oxygen is shown all the time wher- 
ever smoke or unburnt carbon rises from our chimneys. 
The blackest and densest cloud of smoke from a locomo- 
tive or steamboat in a very little while entirely disap- 
pears. What becomes of it? Free oxygen has de- 
creased it just as all through the ages gone it devoured 
the carbon left from decomposing organic matter. 

While it is utter folly to look to the moUusks, polyps 
and fishes of the silurian age as sources of oil, one nat- 
urally asks, how could the smoke arising from a molten 
world, as it lodged amid its mineral vapors and was car- 
ried back to the earth and buried as soot a thousand or 
two thousand feet in the crust, not be made to yield oil 



Oil, Gas and Other Carbons. 347 

and gas ? I presume if all the smoke arising to-day 
from thousands of locomotives could be shut away from 
the atmosphere and put under as great a pressure as is 
now put upon the carbon of the Trenton beds, it could 
be made a source of both oil and gas. 

Let us now apply the annular theory in the case of 
the Trenton rock. It is a good test. The lime which 
gives a prevailing character to the bed over so great a 
part of the United States, like the calcareous matter of 
the cretaceous beds, never came from pre-existing beds. 
To say that it is an ancient organic deposit is supercil- 
ious. The polyp and mollusk might have deposited 
every atom of it, but they never made an atom of it. 
On the other hand, the lime made the polyp and the 
mollusk, and we are forced to look to the mineral exha- 
lations of the infant earth for it. There we find it — a 
vast cloud of calcareous matter floating at its own 
proper level in the world's great envelope. As it was 
fire-formed in a molten earth, measureless quantities of 
smoky, sooty, oily carbon mingled with it. If not, 
why ? A world constituted as this is could not be in a 
state of igneous fluidity and not send smoky exhalations 
to the skies; and the fact must be conceded that they 
floated somewhere amid the mineral mist of the evolv- 
ing planet — ^better in the Trenton matter than else- 
where, for there we find it to-day. From the very na- 
ture of the Trenton matter it became a vehicle for the 
rising carbon from its volcanic birth. The same fires 
gave birth to the lime and the hydro-carbons, and as the 
crystal assumes its form and place, and the plant its 
habitat, the Trenton matter and its carbon, in order and 
harmony, dwelt in the great ring-family. Ages rolled 
away; our ring of Trenton dust, steeped in oily com- 



318 The Earth's Annular System. 

pounds, gradually sank to mother earth, until it reached 
the outskirts of the atmosphere proper, at the equator. 
There balancing in mid-heaven, perhaps for centuries, 
it became an equatorial belt, as all rings in their de- 
cline must do. As a matter of course the southern part 
of that belt was drawn more largely toward the South 
Pole, while its northern boundary settled more rapidly 
and largely toward the arctic region. Thus polar lands 
and polar oceans received the Trenton and its load of 
carbon first. From these lands the movement was out- 
ward upon the vast deep, and the moment they started 
on their journey other conditions began to operate. 
Other matter came in contact with the moving matter. 
The wreck of continents was mingling with the wreck 
of rings, so that the Trenton deposit was made to vary 
greatly in different parts, making it difficult of recogni- 
tion in some parts of the earth. So long as rivers and 
ocean currents flow, this difference in the same deposit 
must affect wide areas. Were this not the case I pre- 
sume the Trenton rock would be a world-wide deposit 
and oil-bearing in all lands. 

When we turn to this deposit in the United States 
we find it marvelously rich in oil in places and quite 
barren in others. This fact would seem strange, on the 
supposition that the lime, as well as the oil, was an ani- 
mal production, for why should organisms make this 
vast deposit and yet confine the oil to spots in it ? On 
the supposition that the Trenton matter carried its oily 
carbon from the skies, it must have given up some of it 
to demanding currents which was carried elsewhere. 
To show this assorting power of currents we need only 
take a survey of the Trenton field: 

According to the geologic record, as all will admit, 



Oily Gas and Other Cartons. 349 

during the time the vast Trenton bed was forming in 
the ancient sea, all but the oldest and most elevated 
parts of JSTorth America were submerged, and as a con- 
sequence it extends over the greatest part of the basin 
drained bj the Mississippi and its tributaries, and I pre- 
sume it has its equivalents in all other lands that then 
were submerged in waters communicating with the 
polar regions, north and south. The Appalachian sys- 
tem was then unformed, and where they now stand were 
the abyssal depths of the ocean. In that ocean there 
was a long elevated and partly submerged region ex- 
tending from the Canadian highlands to those of east- 
ern continent. Another long and submerged fold ex- 
tended from Canada southward, and is known to-day as 
the Cincinnati Arch. This submerged arch divided the 
deep waters of the Atlantic from those of the present 
Mississippi Valley. 

Let us have this vast body of water in mind communi- 
cating with the !N^orth Polar Ocean, through such chan- 
nels as the Baffin's Bay of to-day. Through these chan- 
nels poured the northern waters as they fell from the 
skies, and carried whatever loaded them. 

In latter times, and yet long before the Appalachian 
ranges were heaved from the sea, along these great 
waterways the north world poured its vast hoards of 
bituminous and anthracitic carbon into the Atlantic. 
Antedating all this the Trenton dust, with its associated 
carbon, had fallen, and as we look over the great field 
we can trace the currents that carried this carbon and 
deposited it in favored regions of the sea bottom. Re- 
calling the fact that different degrees of heat sent car- 
bons of different specific gravity to the skies, we 
recognize how the heavier oily forms floated down 



350 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

into the depths of the sea, and how the lighter, assorted 
from them in the process of sedimentation, floated to 
higher regions. In Western Pennsylvania and East- 
ern Ohio, in the great depths of the ancient sea bed, 
is the heavy oily carbon, while on the broad top of the 
Cincinnati Arch the lighter forms were deposited. This 
is abundantly attested by oil wells of the eastern field, 
and the wonderful gas wells in the western. The world 
has long noted the fact, and here it has the explanation, 
without the assumption that the different kinds of fi^h 
made the different kinds of hydro-carbons. 

The Cincinnati Arch was a shallow in the Trenton 
ocean, and I am led to conclude from the very condi- 
tions here shown that when the carbon floated down 
from the north and entered the old Atlantic, it joined a 
current that carried it westward and southwestward. 

It would seem that the great St. Lawrence Valley 
afforded a channel for such a current. Admitting this, 
I find many things confirming it. In the midst of such 
a channel no carbon would be dropped, but along the 
sides of such a current it would be deposited, and the 
line of oil or gas wells in E^ew York, from Fredonia 
westward, and the occasional well on the north side of 
the channel in Canada, all are testimony supporting the 
claim of this southwestward oil current. No oil wells, 
so far as I know, have ever been found in the middle of 
this old channel, and I presume the cities of Rochester, 
Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago, in this 
old course, will never be able to get oil or gas. 

The reader will understand how a wide current mov- 
ing westward and up the incline of the Cincinnati fold, 
would drag on the sea bottom and carry all the carbon 
away from it, just as the prevailing winds carry the 



Oil, Gas and Other Carbons. 351 

leaves up a slope and deposit them in depressions on the 
top of the hill or upon the opposite side. So the great 
current moving westward up and over the arch must 
have left the broad eastern slope mostly barren of oil, 
and it is well known that it is the rarest thing to strike 
oil or gas in that region, and the towns of Alliance, 
Massillon, Akron, Berea, which have spent so much 
money in the vain attempt to find oil might consult the 
annular theory to know why. The moving waters car- 
Tied the sky-fallen carbon away to other fields. But 
where shall we find it ? Certainly we would expect to 
find it on the broad top of the arch in the depressions 
and valleys that run over and along, but most abund- 
antly on the western slope of the arch. Of course all 
the world knows what a remarkable oil and gas field 
both these regions are. The great " Karg well," at 
JFindlay, Ohio, was drilled into a depression on the very 
summit of the arch, and a large number of wells in that 
vicinity, and also at Fostoria and other places, have 
made that region one of the most renowned oil and gas 
fields known. Farther south is the famous oil field of 
Lima. All these are on the broad fold of the Cincin- 
nati Arch and on its western slope. 

These well-known oil fields make the annular student 
bold to further hypothecate. From the great St. Law- 
rence current a branch current seems to have run 
south into Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. In 
making this course it would have to pass over a long 
ridge in the old ocean, running from southvv'estern ISTew 
York, from Chautauqua Lake southwestward, and when 
we come to view that magnificent if not peerless oil 
field of the Pittsburg region, on the southern slope of 
that ridge, we ?.re still more inclined to think this 



352 The EarWs Annular System. 

hypothesis a correct one. And when we further find 
two lines of oil wells along the Ohio Valley — one on 
either side of it — we add another link to the chain of 
testimony. And yet another link is added by the fact 
that the oil wells of this valley are mostly located on 
the southern slope of the Ohio hills. I have found this 
to be the case so often that in consultation with oil seek- 
ers I have always advised boring in a region sloping 
southward or southwestward and have been gratified to 
realize success, while I have seldom known success else- 
where in the Ohio Valley region. 

The question may now be asked, Why do oil fields 
run in lines? Oil men and geologists know very well 
that this is a peculiar fact. They first get the direction 
or trend of an oil field and then drill succeeding wells 
along that course, and even locate " side lines " or 
branches and follow these in course. Those were pecu- 
liar fishes that died and decayed by line and plummet. 

The great St. Lawrence current ran across the north- 
west corner of Ohio, along southern Michigan, and it is 
not a little strange that in passing northward from the 
Findlay gas region we come into a region utterly bar- 
ren of oil and gas. Plainly we cross the middle of the 
old current's track, in which no oil wells will likely ever 
be found. Farther north, toward central Michigan, the 
north line of the current may be found. Time will de- 
cide the case. 

When we comprehend the fact that thbusands of oil 
and gas wells are yielding millions of barrels of oil and 
countless millions cubic feet of gas, year after year, 
until generations pass and leave them to their children, 
we are forced to marvel that vegetarians still enjoy the 
majestic scene. 



Oil, Gas and Other Carbons. 353 

Why is the Trenton bed so barren of oil all along the 
eastern slope of the Cincinnati fold? Why a field so 
amazingly rich on its broad summit and western slope ? 
What kind of fish and crustaceans could those ancient 
oil- and gas-makers have been any way ? 

And now a little history, however it may show the 
egotism of the writer. It is not difficult to recall the oil 
excitement in the seventies and eighties — how thou- 
sands of men with millions of money ran wild in an 
effort to discover new oil fields. The author of the an- 
nular theory and a few of its advocates urged moneyed 
men to drill into the Trenton rock for the hoard it held. 
The vast fund of carbon below it in the older beds 
stoutly affirmed that a lighter oily carbon must be lo- 
cated above the heavy graphitic carbons. But geolo- 
gists everywhere, I believe, discouraged the attempt 
and denounced the claim. Failure to find oil on the 
eastern slope of the Cincinnati anticlinal confirmed 
them, and it was not until about the year 1885 that a 
few prospectors ventured to bore on the top of the arch 
in northwestern Ohio. I remember how our opposers 
called us " crazy," " cranks," etc., and how it was an- 
nounced from official position that " ISTo oil can be 
found in the Trenton and no gas beyond the Maumee 
River." But the drill was put to work almost on the 
very summit of the " arch " and kept to work under 
discouraging conditions until gas gushed from the well 
with terrific force. The history of that " mighty 
gusher " is well known, and I have no room for it here. 
One year from that time the town of Findlay began to 
put on city habiliments, and resolved to have an anni- 
versary in commemoration of her " Application of Nat- 
ural Gas to the Mechanical Arts." A gas carnival and 



354 The Earth's Annular System. 

banquet was held in the young city, and it was esti- 
mated that fifty thousand people assembled to hear the 
orator of the day, the great " Karg well," whose mouth 
was opened in defence of the annular theory, and the 
very earth trembled as it spoke. The Ohio State geolo- 
gist was invited to be there and tell why gas " could 
not be found in the Trenton nor beyond the Maumee." 
The author of the annular theory was invited to attend 
and tell why that bed was filled in places with oily 
hydro-carbons and gas. The former was not there, but 
the latter was present and spoke according to program. 
It was the proudest moment of his life when he finished 
his lecture, and the " Karg " closed the midnight ban- 
quet with its terrific roar of approval. 

In that lecture the speaker made some predictions, 
which have been fulfilled, and here they are : 

" I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the great Karg 
gusher is not the last one to be found in this field. West 
of Pindlay, to the very bounds of the State, and on into 
Indiana and perhaps Illinois, the western slope of the 
Cincinnati fold extends, and it is laden — it must be 
laden — with oil and gas. 

" On the northern borders of the State, and in south- 
ern Michigan, was about the center of the great St. 
Lawrence current. You need not drill for oil in that 
region. All the hydro-carbon was carried away by the 
rapid waters. 

" The branch current of the Ohio Valley, upon meet- 
ing the deep sea in that region, west of the arch, would 
have its motion checked, and perhaps an eddy was 
formed where now is southern Indiana, and I pre- 
dict that a great oil field will be developed there." 

As these predictions were made long before the In- 



Oil, Gas and Other Carbons. 355 

diana oil fields were heard of — before it was discovered 
that there was a barren line running from Lake Erie on 
the southern boundary of Michigan — they become in- 
teresting links of annular testimony. 

This little episode might close this chapter, but 
I have before me the vast oil regions of the East- 
ern Continent, from whose beds the oily floods have 
been pouring and burning as sacred fires since the 
night-time of history. Who can estimate the vast sea 
that has been escaping from away back in the ages? 
China, Japan, Persia, Russia, IsTorth and South America 
each pours a river of oil into the world's trade and I pre- 
sume will do so for centuries to come, and when the 
known oil regions fail we may boast that other and 
vaster fields remain untouched — and must I believe that 
the fish and mollusk made all this ? Are they making oil 
to-day ? If so, where ? If not, why then and not now f 



CHAPTER XVn. 

CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE OF ANNULAR DOWNFALLS IN THE 
TERTIARY OCEAN OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. 

Over an extensive portion of the Rocky Mountain 
region the tertiary beds, as might be expected, are 
fresh water deposits. During the cretaceous age, as is 
well kno^vn, this vast area was covered by the sea, and 
these waters had communication on the north with the 
Arctic Ocean, probably by way of the present depres- 
sion in British America, along the valley of the Macken- 
zie River ; while on the south it communicated with the 
Gulf of Mexico, or other southern waters, by way of the 
lower Mississippi Valley. Thus a wide channel or strait 
passing from the Arctic Ocean fed the waters of the 
great cretaceous sea of the Rocky Mountains, and 
through this sea had direct communication with salt 
waters of the south. 

N^ow, if my claim be a valid one the beds in the 
Rocky Mountain tertiary will present the following fea- 
tures: The cretaceous period having been brought to 
a close by a down-rush of waters and snows in the 
l^orthern Hemisphere, a stream of water pouring 
southward through the above named channel must to 
a great extent have been a fresh-water current; and 
those deposits in the extreme northern beds in the area 
under consideration must be in a great measure fresh- 
water accumulations. Those in the middle part of this 
region must be fresh beds to a less extent, perhaps 
sometimes marine and sometimes entirely fresh, owing 
to changes in currents, etc., and here fresh-water and 



Conclusive Evidence. 357 

marine species will be commingled. While in the 
southern part the beds must be almost exclusively ma- 
rine. This conclusion I came to long before I examined 
the records. It is the conclusion which any one fa- 
miliar with the manner in which fresh-water and salt- 
water currents of the seas dispose of living organisms 
will come to. And further, we will reasonably expect 
that on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, where tertiary 
beds are found in the same latitude, and where the 
open seas have access to the shores, marine fossils will 
prevail. It must be seen, then, that these conclusions 
are based upon the fact that a stupendous addition to 
the oceans in the closing cretaceous came via the chan- 
nels from the polar sea. E'ow if such things are not to 
be found our theory must receive a stunning blow. Let 
the reader reflect for a moment on the philosophic dis- 
tribution of oceanic life under such promoting causes; 
and we will then endeavor to learn something of the 
character of the tertiary beds of the Eocky Mountains. 
Dana says : * " The general distribution of the ma- 
rine beds is similar to that of the cretaceous . . .the 
inner limit being about 100 miles from the GuK in Ala- 
bama, 150 to 200 in Texas, and along the Mississippi 
River the Gulf border extends northward to southern 
Illinois." Again, " the fresh-water or lake deposits are, 
as stated, of all periods from the middle eocene to the 
pliocene, the eocene occurring about Fort Bridger, the 
miocene in the upper Missouri region.'' " It occurs, 
also, in the Big Horn region, in Chetish Mountains, 
about Fort Union." " It extends far north into British 
America, and south to Fort Clark and beyond to 
Texas." And now mark (italics mine), " In the lower 

* " Manual," 490 to 493. 



358 The Earth's Annular System. 

part J on Judith River, there are hrachish water deposits ^ 
containing shells of oysters mingled with fresh-water 
shells.'' 

Again, ^' In the Rocky Mountain region the lignitic 
group of the Green River basin, near Fort Bridger, 
etc., consists of sandy beds, some of them true marine^ 
more of them having a commingling of fresh-water 
shells with marine, which indicates very shallow brack- 
ish waters, and a still larger part strictly fresh-water in 
origin." 

Thus there were conditions by which brackish water- 
beds were formed in the southern part of the tertiary 
sea, on the Rocky Mountains and almost exclusively 
fresh-water strata on the upper Missouri. While in 
the extreme south, as in Texas, the beds are wholly 
marine, and in the extreme north wholly fresh-water. 
For it is well known that there is no marine tertiary in 
the latter.* But this condition was strikingly different 
from that which immediately preceded it. Says Dana:f 
" In the closing part of the cretaceous, in the Rocky 
Mountains, there was a change permanently from a con- 
dition of general submergence under salt-water to one 
of oscillation,'' etc. 

Thus w^e see along a wide strait rimning from far 
north, southward, came in a fund of waters unsuited to 
marine life. It was a supply of fresh-water that was 
of sufficient volume to drive marine forms southward! 
If this fresh-water came from rivers, where did they 
rise, and whither did they flow? Did some river flow 
from the north, or from the east, and empty into a sea 
forty times as large as Lake Erie, making its northern 

• See Dana's " Manual," page 488. 
t Ibid., page 478. 



Conclusive Evidence. 359 

part fresh, its central brackish and its southern ma- 
rine ? It is not likely. So vast an area of fresh-water 
formations cannot be explained by lakes or lacustrine 
deposits. It is evidently the v^rork of a vast bay fed on 
one side by a fresh-water ocean, on the other communi- 
cating with the salt ocean. 

Here is a distribution of fossils that gives valuable 
support to the claim I have made. A new fund of 
fresh-water came in at the beginning of the eocene, 
when its waters were filled with marine forms; grad- 
ually but surely these gave way, so that before the 
formation was half completed fresh waters had so 
gained upon the marine that fresh-water formations 
are reckoned from the middle of the eocene. Marine 
forms are pushed southward into marine waters, while 
about midway between the two extremes the fresh- 
water and marine are so commingled as to be sometimes 
fresh and sometimes salt, favoring neither true marine 
nor fresh-water organisms. Now I suppose there is not 
a geologist living who, upon examining these things, 
will not claim that the fresh-water came from the 
north ; and I am sure he will not claim that it was river- 
water. 

l^ow what means this peculiar arrangement of 
strata ? Could they be more emphatic in their testi- 
mony to the truth of a great fresh-water polar sea if 
they had been intentionally arranged to lend it sup- 
port? Suppose the tertiary of British America from 
the United States border, along the line of the Macken- 
zie to the Arctic Ocean had been marine. It would 
have been a crushing evidence against the annular the- 
ory. But we are not yet through with this investiga- 
tion. Dana, our same high authority, says : " The ter- 



360 The Earth's Annular System. 

tiary of the Pacific coast is of marine origin," * and also 
that the marine tertiary covers a large part of the At- 
lantic border. Doubtless Davis Strait at the same time 
poured a volume of fresh-water from the polar world 
directly into the Atlantic close to the ItTorth American 
coast, just as the channel of the Mackenzie. For we 
find the same commingling of marine and fresh-water 
fauna on the ISTew England coast, while in the north- 
ern part the shells are exclusively fresh-water species. 
We are not at liberty to call these river and estuary 
deposits, for all the estuary and river deposits farther 
south, on the sea border, are chiefly marine. 

Along the coast, from Delaware Bay to Florida, and 
around the GuK of Mexico, where hundreds of rivers, 
including the Mississippi, empty wherever the tertiary" 
beds are laid down they are not considered fresh-water 
beds. Hence the utter fallacy of the claim that the vast 
expanse of north tertiary beds are fresh-water lake de- 
posits, or of fluviatile formation. How could it be pos- 
sible that, in the absence of important rivers, such wide 
reaches of fresh-water tertiary could have the origin 
claimed by geologists, when all the evidence is that the 
mightiest rivers of the world pouring into the ocean 
have failed universally to make such ? 'Now, if we will 
just conceive that the vast polar ocean of the tertiary 
period was a body of fresh-water all mystery ends. 

Thus, on the California coast on one side and the 
'New Jersey shore on the other, we find marine beds de- 
posited synchronically with the fresh water deposits of 
the tertiary sea of the interior, showing that in these 
parts of the earth, where the open sea or oceans washed 
the shores, salt-water prevailed. But here were lands 

* " Manual," page 492. 



Conclusive Evidence. 361 

washed by river streams ! Virginia and Maryland, 
skirted by marine tertiary, as is well known, had rivers 
pouring into the sea, for the Appalachian arches had 
been previously formed. Why did not these rivers 
cause fresh-w^ater deposits, or at least brackish beds? 
The simple fact is, that the very tertiary formations 
which we well know must have been somewhat under 
the influence of river water, do not show such an influ- 
ence, while in the interior tertiary sea, where, so far as 
we can tell, no rivers emptied, the whole deposit, from 
the National Park to the Arctic Sea, is a fresh-water 
formation. Hence the reasonable conclusion that my 
<jlaim is a just one. That so-called lacustrine, or fresh- 
water deposits, in the ISTorthern Hemisphere are not 
necessarily river-formed beds, nor deposits in inland 
seas, as is generally claimed. 

But the picture is not quite complete. Something is 
needed to finish the triplicity of phenomena. We have 
had the " plunge bath,'' and the extermination of spe- 
cies, which Dana says * is ^' Remarkable for its univer- 
sality and thoroughness.'' ISTew waters were poured 
into the oceans ; therefore, as greater mechanical pres- 
sure necessarily resulted, and consequent increased heat 
and expansion in the deep-seated rocks beneath the 
ocean's bed, we must look for crust folding and up- 
heaval. And as this dov^nnfall of water closing the cre- 
taceous period was a stupendous one, and the extermi- 
nation " universal and thorough," then the crumpling 
must have been correspondingly stupendous. ISTow, 
what do we find ? Early in the tertiary we find moun- 
tain making on every continent — a grand world-wide 
disturbance of strata, equaled only in its universality by 

* " Manual," page 488. 



362 The Earth's Annular System, 

one of the most " complete exterminations of species of 
which there is record/' * In a former chapter I have 
shown why this order is so invariably maintained. 

l^ow, here it will be seen that all these phenomena 
combine to demonstrate the truth of the annular the- 
ory. A downfall of water necessitates accompanying 
snows and a change of climate; hence the world-wide 
extinction of life-forms well-known to all geologists, and 
since I know of no competent cause of universal strata- 
folding, but increased mechanical pressure universally 
upon the ocean's bed, I am simply forced to the conclu- 
sion that the cretaceous period was closed by a stu- 
pendous downfall of tellurio-cosmic matter upon the 
earth. 

Now, it may be somewhat interesting to look a little 
into these changes, as recorded by the races entombed 
in the debris of continents. At Jackson, Miss., the 
eocene beds contain numerous marine shells, and here 
have also been found the giant remains of the zeu- 
glodon, a whale-like inhabitant of the cretaceous seas. 
In the Green River basin are found the remains of fos- 
sil fish belonging to the cretaceous waters and buried 
in the early tertiary beds; also mammalians of the tapir 
family, and remains of the dinoceros and uintatherium. 

While on the Atlantic border, from Martha's Vine- 
yard to southern Yirginia, cretaceous animals in great 
numbers are found in marl-pits of the lower tertiary. 
These things seem to confirm the claim that the cre- 
taceous world was swept by a mighty cataclysmic wave, 
and that its animals were buried in the detrital mass 
swept from the land into the seas and which formed the 
lower eocene beds. 

* Dana's "Manual," page 487. 



Conclusive Evidence. 363 

So nearly are the lower eocene beds related to the 
cretaceous that eminent geologists are unable to agree 
as to whether they are tertiary or earlier. Dana says: 
" It is doubtful whether they are one or the other." 
Both Profs. Cope and Marsh discovered in eocene beds 
remains of saurians, related to the dinosauri and 
megalosauri, which are known to have been cretaceous 
forms. Thus so far we see that the " American 
Record " shows that new waters brought in a new en- 
vironment, involving a general destruction of creta- 
ceous forms, and buried them in the debris of the cre- 
taceous world, carried in a great revulsion to the seas, 
which became the lower tertiary beds — actual transi- 
tion beds; hence the diflSculty in assigning it its true 
place in the series. 

Again, when we turn to the foreign tertiary we find 
the same general conditions prevailing; especially after 
the eocene, or first tertiary, there is a general preva- 
lence of fresh-water beds over a large part of Europe. 
Let us briefly examine these things and see how they 
bear upon a fresh-water ocean. 

In a recent lecture by Boyd Dawkins, the English 
geologist, while speaking of the former conditions of 
the earth, in more modern geological times, he said: " In 
the eocene and miocene periods Europe was united with 
Iceland and Greenland, and also with the United States 
of America, by a barrier of land extending past the 
Faroe Isles, which was covered by a dense forest, com- 
posed to a large extent of the same trees as in Europe 
and in America, and which allowed of a comparatively 
free migration of animals to and fro between England 
and the United States." 

I suppose the conclusion was drawn from the simi- 



364 The Eartlvs Annular System. 

larity of the fauna on the two continents — the reptiles 
and the fishes that formerly inhabited the streams and 
lakes of both continents. ^nTow, while I am free to ad- 
mit the existence of land communication between 
Europe and America by way of that great submarine 
plateau, I am not able to draw the same conclusion 
from the evidence, since I cannot see why land com- 
munication is necessary for fishes and alligators to pass 
from one continent to another, unless a fresh-water 
channel or river ran from one extremity of the plateau 
to the other. 

But if we now admit, as I have before urged the 
necessary fact, that the incessant fall of exterior vapors 
in the northern ocean — the measureless fund of snows 
deposited and melted in its Vv^aters — produced a great 
fresh- water ocean, that involved the north polar world; 
and that, with the exception of a few channels that con- 
nected with southern waters, it washed a continuous 
barrier that encircled the earth, the explanation be- 
comes easy. It is claimed that during the miocene 
period the climate was tropical, even where now the 
winters are severe. Suppose, then, that during the 
miocene, or earlier in the tertiary period, the Macken- 
zie flowed as it now does, and was inhabited by fishes 
and other animals of a tropical climate, and that other 
rivers ran from the great plateau northward into the 
same sea, just as the rivers of northern Europe and 
Siberia do to-day (and it would be impossible that such 
streams should not exist), it can be readily seen, accord- 
ing to this hypothesis, how the same fauna that charac- 
terized the land of the Mackenzie would characterize 
the entire land belt of North America, Europe and 
Asia. 



Conclusive Evidence. 365 

These continents were all washed by the same north 
sea. They all poured mighty rivers into the same. 
And the waters of such a sea were fresh under the same 
laws that to-day make Lake Superior a fresh-water sea. 
There would be very natural facility for an intermin- 
gling of species, and I presume such means are much 
more reasonable than to suppose a great isthmus of 
land, for it must be remembered that there were likely 
straits connecting this north ocean with the waters of 
the Atlantic, since in a part of the tertiary times fresh- 
water and brackish-water fauna, driven from the north, 
inhabited ]^ew England seas, and many mammalian 
land animals are of different species. The mammoth of 
Europe and Asia was different from the American; but 
the hypothesis of a fresh-water ocean does not rest alone 
on this kind of evidence. The widespread fresh waters 
of the tertiary period do not apparently admit of any 
other hypothesis. One-third of I^orth America, a great 
part of north Europe, and very nearly all of Siberia, 
and much of China and other parts of Asia, were appar- 
ently synchronously submerged beneath fresh waters. 
And it certainly would not be too strong language for 
me to say they were submerged by the north polar 
ocean. 

Geologists have long claimed that the great fresh- 
water beds of tertiary Europe were made by great 
rivers, running south or southeastwardly from a north- 
ern or northwestern continent. What, then, deposited 
the tertiary beds of Siberia and North America? If 
this claim be true, what are now the continents were 
then the oceans. But the evidence is accumulative that 
an elevated arch of land, once formed in the evolution 
of continents, always remained an arch; and we have no 



366 The Earth's Annular System. 

evidence that such ever became a trough of the ocean. 
Besides, the geological record of the tertiary itself does 
not corroborate this view. The filled up estuaries show 
that the same rivers ran into the northern ocean that 
now empty into it, only at a higher level, and the fos- 
sils of alligators and other inhabitants of rivers show 
that the land was only partially submerged. If the 
rivers ran in the opposite direction analogy would show 
that these great fresh-water beds could not have been 
such as they are — so exclusively fresh-water deposits. 
It seems to me, as we look over the vast field, it is im- 
possible not to be convinced that a great fresh-water 
ocean rolled its billows over the so-called estuary beds 
of northern Europe, Asia and parts of ISTorth America. 
It seems like reversing natural tendencies to conclude 
otherwise, and I am sure when the sober calculation of 
man is brought to bear upon this great question it must 
gravitate into the line I have here indicated. With this 
thought before us a hundred mysteries are explained. 
The fresh-water beds of iJ^J'orway and northern Russia, 
those of England and Scotland, can then be explained; 
for being identical in many respects with those of 
France, that they have all been supplied by the same 
northwestern continent, would seem unreasonable if not 
impossible. 

But now, with all the evidence of a downfall of 
vapors, as shown in J^orth American tertiary beds — in 
the grand slaughter of living forms and the folding of 
strata, with all the evidence of a nearly isolated ocean 
as against the evidence of a northwestern continent ia 
the formation of beds on three vast continents, let the 
reader say which is more in accord with law in the evo- 
lution of the earth. If we leave the continents stand- 



Conclusive Evidence. 367 

ing, with their outlines somewhat contracted by neces- 
sary submergence, with the same drainage system they 
now possess, and still further admit the necessary fresh- 
water ocean to account for the rock-recorded history, I 
believe the interpretation becomes plain. 

But what does this great ocean of fresh water prove ? 
Does it not point with almost positive conclusiveness 
to an augmentation of snows from the great super-aerial 
fund? Have we not almost positive testimony in 
abundance that the cretaceous age just closed was 
ended by excessive and universal refrigeration? That 
the transported blocks of stone found in the upper cre- 
taceous and lower tertiary point to a northern origin? 
These things being apparently true, we are again forced 
to admit that in addition to the reasonableness of such 
a conclusion the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of 
an annular fall of waters in the north polar world as 
the sole cause of the transition from the cretaceous to 
the tertiary. 

Let the reader now draw somewhat on his imagina- 
tion. It is well-known that all the existing continents 
were largely submerged under cretaceous waters. The 
Eocky Mountains, the Andes, the Alps and the Hima- 
layas, were either unborn or in their infant stages. It 
was a universal ocean of calcareo-saline water. Then it 
is evident that some mighty barrier was reared by some 
resistless force that rolled the cretaceous waves south- 
ward and made an isolated fresh-water ocean in the 
north. But here is our hypothetical barrier, the great 
Atlantic plateau, reaching from the coast of ISTewf ound- 
land to Ireland, and known by actual soundings and 
other evidence to be a table-land submerged. It was 
raised from the deep, according to the record, at this 



368 The Earth's Annular System. 

very time and stood for uncounted millenniums as dry- 
land. That is, we have an actual barrier at the very 
time the fresh-water ocean was formed. We have the 
three-fold phenomena of new waters from on high, wide 
extermination and plication of strata. As I have be- 
fore said, there is enough water on the earth's surface 
to-day to make one thousand terrific cataclysms, each of 
which would cover the whole earth fifteen feet deep 
with water. Suppose now a fall of snow in the north- 
ern regions sufiicient to spread that amount of water 
over the earth packed into glacier ice. The actual me- 
chanical pressure, incalculable and inconceivable, aris- 
ing from such an additional amount of exotic matter in 
the polar world, forcing the lower rock-beds into a con- 
dition of plasticity, must have had every pound thereof 
conserved in crust upthrowal. 

A vast mass of rock moving in obedience to a meas- 
ureless directing power (just as a glacier on the earth's 
surface moves under Titanic pressure), is simply forced 
under the plateau, and this, with the additional force of 
rock expansion under augmented heat, in the inmost 
depths of the earth, which no resistance could curb, 
gradually, but with a step as steady as time, raised the 
plateau until the towering ice continent, at one end of 
the telluric balance-beam, was equipoised by a new and 
growing continent at the other. 

E"ow, we know that this new land was raised by a 
force directed at right angles to its axial line running 
east and west. The southern force was evidently a re- 
sisting or passive force; the northern an active energy. 
We also know that a force working thus lifted a belt of 
land reaching from western Europe to eastern Asia 
at nearly the same time. What, then, must have been 



Conclusive Evidence. 369 

the volume of that lifting force? ^o wonder a new 
continent was made. Suppose an ice cap five thousand 
feet thick should suddenly cover the Arctic world. 
What would the pressure of such an ice-continent re- 
sult in ? Is it not physically certain that it would press 
that part of the earth inward or downward upon itseK, 
even though the planet were solid to the center ? Sixty 
thousand feet of steel blocks piled one upon another 
would give sufficient pressure to render the lowest 
blocks plastic, and raise the temperature thereof nearly 
to the point of fusion. Suppose a mer de glace were 
placed in the bosom of the earth and covered by thou- 
sands of feet of rock. It is evident that if a greater 
vertical pressure than lateral were exerted the ice 
would move laterally until the two forces became equal ; 
and it is easy to conceive a vertical force sufficiently 
great to press the entire mass laterally into another bed. 
It would be just so with a granite bed or stratum of 
steel. 

A downfall of annular matter must add additional 
pressure to rocks, perhaps already yielding to a direct- 
ing force; add more heat and consequent expansion, 
which no terrestrial resistance can withstand, and a con- 
tinent, it would seem, rises because additional matter, 
by a resistless force, is intercalated between its surface 
and its foundation beds. 

Let us remember that as the tertiary was a time of 
great mountain making and consequent changes in sea- 
level, those portions of the continent which necessarily 
lay near the regions of disturbance w^ere subject to os- 
cillation by depression and elevation of barriers, so 
that inlets from southern waters, reaching into or near 
the fresh waters, sometimes commingled their fauna, 



370 The EartWs Annular System. 

so that, as in the Paris basin, salt water sometimes occu- 
pied the ground, and again fresh water returned, and 
that these conditions may even have extended at times 
far into the British Islands. One fact, however, is 
very plain, that after the eocene the northern portion 
of the continents, both eastern and western, were sel- 
dom washed to any extent by marine waters. The evi- 
dence seems to point to the fact that mountain making 
in Europe was a very irregular process. The Pyrenees, 
likely, were elevated during the eocene as well as the 
Julian Alps, and some other highlands. But the Apen- 
nines delayed until the close of the eocene. The West- 
ern Alps, where stands Mount Blanc, arose at the close 
of the miocene. Some of the British mountain chains 
were likely elevated nearly the same time; while 
there is also evidence that mountain making in Central 
and Southern Europe was active throughout most of 
the pliocene, showing that the tertiary was eminently a 
period of disturbance. 

Further, let us remember that if a tree grown at the 
headwaters of the Mackenzie were to float into the polar 
sea, as some doubtless do to-day, it would be no evidence 
when found buried in the polar sea beds that a climate 
of the Upper Mackenzie prevailed beneath the Arctic 
circle. And when geologists of to-day find the Califor- 
nia pine in the miocene of Greenland, or the cypress of 
Arkansas in the miocene of Alaska, or Spitzbergen, 
they have no right to claim a warm or sul)tropical cli- 
mate for those regions on this evidence alone. For 
when we assume an elevated plateau across the Atlantic 
we must also assume river systems, drawing the same 
into northern waters, and the transfer of southern 
plants to northern beds; so that much allowance must 



Conclusive Evidence. 371 

be made in the claim that a subtropical climate has ex- 
isted in those lands when based on such evidence. 

!N"ow, as we look back over the tertiary world, and are 
advised from its well-known record, I cannot see how a 
geologist can come to any other conclusion than that 
which here is evidently forced upon us. We cannot 
shut our eyes to the overwhelming evidence that shows 
one vast expanse of fresh waters. 'Tis not in the Paris 
basin alone, not the whole of northwestern Europe 
alone, nor the stretch of thousands of miles on the 
northern coast of a single continent, that presents this 
testimony. It can scarcely be possible that a fresh- 
water lake of one-fourth the expanse of the tertiary 
fresh-water beds of Europe could obtain. But when we 
can trace the shore lines of this limitless fresh-water 
sea around the whole hemisphere, we are driven, it 
seems to me, beyond the possibility of a doubt, to the 
conclusion that during the greater part of the tertiary 
period the great Arctic Ocean was a wide expanse of 
fresh waters. 

But what does such a conclusion lead to ? It leads 
directly to the positive and permanent establishment of 
the annular theory. A fresh-water polar ocean, coming 
immediately after the cretaceous period, means a vast 
down-flow of annular waters or snows — the very thing 
demanded by the cretaceous glaciers, the very thing de- 
manded by the elevated barrier, the very thing de- 
manded by the sweeping and universal extermination 
of species. If no other evidence could be found to sup- 
port this theory a polar fresh-water ocean rolling as it 
were over the beds of cretaceous matter would seem to 
settle the question beyond a doubt, since no other ter- 
restrial source or cause can be found. 



372 The Earth's Annular System. 

Thus it seems that every step we have taken in this 
long and to some, perhaps, tedious investigation has 
added a link of testimony in favor of the grand concep- 
tion of an annular system. We read the thought on the 
gilded firmament — the clock-work of the heavens; we 
read it in the solid rock-ribbed earth traced in imperish- 
able lines, from the close of the archsean time till the 
last great fall of waters — a thousand links joined and 
inter joined — a multitude of witnesses speak from every 
field. Our knowledge of the earth is yet exceedingly 
limited. Geology is yet in its infancy. Man is just 
waking up and laying hold of the great volume. And 
the earth — conceived in nebulous heat, born in the 
throes of the mightiest revulsions, rocked in the billows 
of a molten sea, and swaddled by its inveterate flames — 
grew old and now treads its majestic round, clad in the 
wreck of rings, its bosom filled with the dust of races. 
From that dust man has arisen, and looks back upon 
the bed whence he came with bewildered eyes, and 
forth upon the possibilities in visions bright with Hope. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. 

THE LAST ADVANCE OF GLACIERS. 

It must seem plain to the reasoning mind that if the last down- 
fall of exterior vapors fell at the time of Noah, and was, as is 
here claimed, the deluge, then there must have been a modern 
advance of polar glaciers, agreeably to a physical law referred to 
before. 

As previously stated, when exterior vapors entered the atmos- 
phere, they gravitated naturally more largely toward the polar 
regions, and, falling there as snows, would accumulate there as 
glaciers, and the extent of those glaciers would correspond to the 
amount of snows. Now, it is evident, if there ever was an Eden 
climate on this earth, its destruction was brought about by a 
change of climate. It is also evident, if the deluge was a col- 
lapse of the last remnants of upper waters, that the latter must 
have begun to fall in polar regions many centuries previous, 
since we see that throughout all geologic times such changes 
are spread over vast periods. 

It appears that the Eden world suffered a change during the 
Adamite age (Gen. 3: 17 tO 22; also Gen. 4: 12), and it also ap- 
pears that that change was effected by a change in climate. For 
the race which dwelt naked in Eden became clothed in the skins 
of animals J and whatever interpretation the opinionated may 
draw, I draw my conclusions from law. That, if the infant hu- 
man race ever dwelt naked on earth, the climate was then warm, 
and if it afterwards dwelt on earth clothed in the skins of ani- 
mals, it had then become colder. And if it grew colder, it is 
more than probable it was caused by a fall of snows; and if 
Eden was formed by means pointed out in these pages, then it 
must be almost certain that the Edenic climate was changed by a 
fall of snows from the earth's annular system.* 

* See " Eden's Flaming Sword " in the author's second volume 
on the annular theory. 



374 TTie Earth's Annular System. 

Hence we have reasonable grounds for concluding that for 
more than a thousand years of the Edenic period the vapors 
which finally involved the earth in a terrific and wide-desolating 
flood, continued to fall as snows at the poles. And, if the physi- 
cal conditions of the antediluvians and their environment de- 
pended upon the conditions of upper vapors, of which there is 
no reasonable doubt, then the question is almost reduced to a 
demonstration that polar glaciers began to advance in Edenic 
times; and thus we have connected into one grand and varied 
scene, the whole age of antediluvian man. The same cause that 
deprived him of his Eden home, and brought upon him all of life's 
physical ills in a modified form, closed the scene at the time the 
" fountains " of the aerial " deep " v>'ere " broken up." 

Jv'ow, if this be true, there must be some physical evidence of 
a change in climate. Let us briefly turn our attention to this. 
The exceedingly slow motion of glaciers is well known. A sud- 
den fall of polar snows would immediately and rapidly send its 
chilling influence over an Eden world; but the full eflfect of the 
same would be gradual and depend entirely upon the progress of 
the glaciers and the volume of snows composing them. Untold 
centuries might intervene before adjacent lands would yield to the 
scepter of eternal winter. As the polar glaciers urged their way 
from the dead to the living world, it changed the climates of 
genial lands to the lifeless scenes of the glacial epochs. 

More than eight hundred years ago Greenland was not the 
frigid land it now is. Eight centuries ago the Icelanders and 
Northmen sailed through northern seas, in the interest of com- 
merce, where now our hardiest seamen, in ample vessels, well 
manned and equipped, scarcely dare to venture. They planted 
colonies on Greenland's shores, whose very name bespeaks a 
fruitful clime. They erected monuments on an island in Baffin's 
Bay whose remains tell a tale of enterprise and energy. They 
entered Lancaster Sound and Barrows Strait.* Icelandic annals 
show that their people not only pushed forward commercial enter- 
prises into these now inhospitable lands, but they also carried 
their religion into the new colonies. Greenland and Spitzbergen 
were, according to their histories, for centuries prosperous and 
happy settlements. We must give these annals due credence. 
What has become of these colonies? Would any nation now at- 
tempt to colonize those dreary solitudes of eternal winter, with 
the prospect of making prosperous settlements? Is it not evi- 

* See Am. Cyc. : " Arctic Discoveries." 



Appendix. 375 

dent that the Greenland and Spitzbergen of the Northmen age 
were not the Greenland and Spitzbergen of to-day? It really 
seems that the northern glacier has progressed so far southward 
that once habitable lands have become desolate — we might almost 
say " without inhabitant." 

It seems likely, then, in view of a former genial temperature 
in northern lands, that the present glaciation of the polar worlds 
is but a legitimate result of the decline of the last remnant of 
outer vapors. From this it necessarily follows that the great ice 
caps of the polar regions are moving toward the equator, and 
consequently are continually diminishing. They are continually 
sending off great icebergs out into the seas, where they melt and 
drop their load of mud and dirt, gravel and boulders, and, it may 
be, their entombed and mummied dead. 

Thus, it is possible, we are approaching a day when the last 
iceberg will be borne toward the tropics, and the last glacier be 
made to loose its grip upon the land, and a more genial clime 
pervade a greater part of the earth. 



JS^OTE II. 



THE LOST CONTINENT. 

Evidence is continually accumulating which goes to show that 
a great Pacific continent now lies under water. Since the chap- 
ter on " Oceanic Augmentation " was put in manuscript form I 
have read, with intense interest, the " Lost Atlantis," by Ignatius 
Donnelly. The mass of evidence this author brings forth to prove 
the existence of a submerged continent in the Atlantic waters 
is simply astonishing. The fact that a great insular continent 
has, in very recent geologic time, been overflowed, seems to be 
so clearly proven that it may be looked upon as an established 
truth. But tell me, how could such great continents sink with- 
out draw ing the oceanic waters away from the shores of the con- 
tinents, and thus increasing the pitch of rivers near their out- 
lets? In addition to the submerged continent of the Pacific and 
that of the Atlantic, between the United States and Africa, 
there is a vast submerged continent or barrier of the North 
Atlantic. 

These facts leave no room for doubt that the oceans have been 
augmented, and stand to-day many fathoms deeper than they 
did, perhaps, in the Edenic day. 



376 The Earth's Annular System. 

:n^ote in. 

ANTHRACITES IN BRITISH AMERICA. 

My readers will remember the claim made in the chapter on 
"Anthracites," that such heavy forms of coal must lie in great 
beds along the slopes of British America. In a lecture delivered 
by the author, before these pages were in the publishers* hands, 
this language was used : " Long ago I predicted that great beds 
of anthracite and bituminous coal would be found to imderlie 
the great basin and plateau of British America. England, in the 
possession of that vast territory, is richer than if she owned all 
the gold mines of the world." 

It is now authentically announced that " a seam of fine quality 
of anthracite has been found eight hundred miles west of Winni- 
peg, on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The seam is fourteen feet 
thick! " 



]^OTE IV, 

A SIGNIFICANT ADMISSION. 

As these pages are undergoing their last revision before being 
placed in the printers* hands, a friendly letter comes from Prof. 
N. H. Winchell, of the Minneapolis University, and State Geolo- 
gist of Minnesota. In this letter the writer makes the frank con- 
cession that the primeval vapors, mineral laden and revolving on 
high, "must have lingered in the skies much later than has 
been admitted." This was in. reply to my pamphlet, "Alaska, 
Land of the Nugget, Why? " 

It is not likely that the writer ever imagined what a sweep- 
ing admission he made. If we admit that the primordial waters 
did not all come back to the earth till more recent times, then 
the annular theory of world making is conceded. We admit the 
geologic ages were outlined by the progressive wreck of the 
earth's annular system. Then how can we avoid the solution of 
the glacial problem, for as surely as the vapors fell in modern 
geologic times they fell as snows in the polar world, north and 
south. So, too, as surely as those primeval vapors arose from 
A molten earth they were laden with gold vapors, which readily 
;9ssociate with heated waters, and we are forced to the conclu- 
;Sion that, as these vapors arose together, they rode together for 
ftges in the lofty skies, and, as the earth cooled, they crystalized 



Appendix. 377 

into forms — snow-flakes, hail, nuggets and gold-flakes, etc., and 
when they fell they fell together in polar lands. So that the 
Mrth-place of the glacier is the birth-place of placer gold. 

Primeval vapors, lingering in the skies until recent geologic 
times, mean an annular system with all that it implies. Then 
how are we to face the coal and the oil problems — for vapors 
could not rise from a molten earth and not carry a world of 
uneonsumed fuel with them? It is of the utmost importance 
that geologists be careful how and what they concede. The earth 
in all its features is linked to an ancient ring system. Go what 
road we may, we are perpetually meeting with its deathless sur- 
vivals. The miners of Alaskan gold all admit, as they collect the 
nuggets and the dust from the frozen earth, from the very sum- 
mits of mountain peaks and from the surface of glaciers, that 
the precious hoard was not ground from the rocks. Whence 
-came it then ? A letter lying before me affirms that the " gold 
found on the surface of Mt. Fair weather Glacier must have come 
from the heavens." How the truth struggles to the light! 



THE TRUE ORIGIN OF COAL— THE VEGETATION THEORY 
DISPROVED. 

The following lecture was delivered before the Belmont County 
Teachers' Institute, at its meeting in Barnesville, Ohio, August 
11th, 1885: 

I am glad to meet with you, my friends, teachers of my na- 
tive county, in the discussion of the coal problem. I am glad be- 
cause it is to the student and instructor that I must confide the 
promulgation of the theory I am about to explain. It is a most 
important problem; important, because it involves the fate of 
many time-honored theories. This is a day when all scientific 
questions are tested by the calcium light of reason — weighed in 
the philosopher's scales, and valued by the microscopic test of 
law. 

A theory that absolutely fails in one point is a complete fail- 
ure. And, after a critical examination of the hypothesis that the 
coal beds of the earth are a vegetable product, it is found that 
it does absolutely and utterly fail in many points, and that it 
has scarcely a feature that can abide these tests. 

The Chart. — I present before you a chart representing a 
planet just issuing from the igneous or molten condition — a 



3T8 The EarWs Annular System. 

planet constituted as the earth, of water, mineral and metallic 
matter — a chart exhibiting the great and essential fact that 
such a planet must at some time in the course of its evolution 
become surrounded by a complex system of equatorial rings, 
composed of matter concentrated from its nebulous empire and 
mingled with aqueous and mineral vapors, expelled from its 
heated center during the reign of fire. It represents the original 
atmosphere of a burning world, which atmosphere formed into 
rings as the suspended vapors condensed. So that such a system 
is necessarily composed of matter, meteoric and vaporous, on its 
downward course to a common center, and other matter driven 
outward and upward by the measureless energy of heat, and 
which, from utter necessity, upon falling within, becomes no in- 
considerable part of the planet's sedimentary beds, or aqueous- 
formed crust. It presents to your view what I have called the 
" Annular Theory." — a thing conceived in my boyish mind as I 
gazed in confused wonder upon the ring system of the planet 
Saturn. Believing that one unchanging and universal law pre- 
sided in the construction of worlds, I could not divest my mind 
of the conception that the earth also must have had at one time 
a ring or annular system, and amid the " ups and downs " of a 
varied life the idea has lived as a part of my mental being, until 
it noAv seems to be a positive reality. In the course of time 
the question of the origin of coal, with numerous other important 
ones, became involved in and, as I hold, satisfactorily explained 
by this theory, after all these crucial tests had been applied. 

Now you will excuse me if I should be a little tedious in ap- 
proaching this question, for it is no ordinary one — one upon 
which you can afford to devote, not minutes nor hours, but days 
and weeks of thought. 

The first thing for us to understand, in the evolution of this 
theory, is the now settled fact that this earth was once a burn- 
ing orb. Wherever we turn the telescope upon the universe of 
worlds we see the glowing suns of a scintillating creation — the 
sparkling centers of evolving worlds. The spectroscope also 
speaks, and in it we put implicit faith, for it cannot falsify. It 
photographs on the philosopher's screen the flames of comets and 
suns. It tells us that nebulae, planets and stars are composed 
of materials the same in kind as those out of which the earth was 
built. Every star is a burning world, and consequently a smok- 
ing world — a mighty crucible in which mineral and metallic ele- 
ments are fused, vaporized and sublimed; where chemical com- 



Appendix. 379 

pounds are reduced and r e- combined ; where the work of creation 
and re-creation is going on forever. 

Now let us imagine a world composed exclusively of water 
and sandstone. Let it be fused or melted to its inmost depths 
by inveterate heat, as millions of worlds are to-day. By this 
heat its waters would be vaporized and driven away from the 
fiery mass, and the core would be a mass of melted silica, and an 
atmosphere of aqueous vapors would surround it. Now, if the 
heat be increased so as to make the mass a shining sun or beam- 
ing star, the silica would be vaporized and also driven away and 
made to commingle with the watery vapors, and, if the melted 
mass contained limestone, iron or lead, these substances would 
also be vaporized and the vaporous atmosphere would contain 
gaseous matter of all these substances. And it must be seen that 
in the universe of law, as the mass becomes cold, these vaporized 
elements would condense, in order of their susceptibility of fusion 
and vaporization, and, falling to a common center, would form 
a spherical mass, not of water and sandstone as before, but one 
composed of all these elements. It must also be seen that the 
aqueous vapors would be the last to condense, and, moreover, 
the last to fall from the position which they must have taken 
under the reign of heat, repelling from a focus; and, while all 
these materials thus vaporized and afterwards condensed, must 
to some extent become commingled and form, just as we see un- 
der our feet, a heterogeneous world, yet there would be upon 
the whole some definite and regular order of strata arrange- 
ment. For, in the condensation and consequent precipitation the 
heaviest and most refractory minerals — minerals most difficult to 
fuse and vaporize — would separate from the rest and settle first. 
Beds of silex, almost pure, and silicious beds containing iron, cal- 
cium and every other metal or mineral contained in the fiery 
envelope would recur in some kind of order in our hypothetic 
world. There would be beds of metals arising from this fiery 
distillation nearly pure, under the law of elemental assortment 
and segregation. We see this law abundantly and universally 
exemplified in the entire structure of the earth's crust. We have 
sand beds, lime beds and metallic beds, all nearly pure; and then 
beds of every degree almost of impurity or mixture. Hence, we 
are at once forced to face the self-evident truth that there must 
be in the sedimentary beds of every previously molten orb the 
very material that formerly had existed in its atmosphere. 
If that atmosphere or glowing envelope contained carbon in 
any form whatever, that carbon would be contained as pure and 



o80 The Earth's Annular System. 

also as mixed beds in the sedimentary crust. Now let me ask you 
to remember this vital fact. I will state it again, so that you 
can all certainly understand it. In every world whose fiery and 
vaporous atmosphere contained carbonaceous matter there must 
be beds of carbon of varying degrees of piu-ity. For the same 
reason that silicious minerals must form sand beds as they fall 
from the great vaporous fund: for the same reason that cal- 
careous minerals must form strata of limestone, mineral carbon, 
in whatever form it existed, whether as graphite or carbonate, 
as carbonic anhydride, or even as the diamond, must have sep- 
arated in that inevitable sublimation from its associated ele- 
ments and finally formed carbon beds in the evolving world. 
Beds of primitive carbon! Carbon that needed not the light of 
the sun nor the mysterious laboratory of the plant to make it 
carbon. Carbon that existed as such millions of years before 
a plant cell existed. 

Did I call this a vital question? Is there a man who dares 
dispute it? It is vital because it utterly abrogates the old idea 
that a carbon bed can have no other source than that of vege- 
tation. Here is the critical foundation upon which geologists 
stand to-day, who say coal is a vegetable product because vegeta- 
tion is the only competent source of carbon beds. Away down 
amid the archsean piles of the earth, amid primitive rocks that 
never felt the thrill of the sunbeam's touch; where never a plant, 
a twig, a leaf, or a bud can be found as a fossil, you wiU find 
stupendous beds of primitive carbon, as aU geologists know full 
well. Then, I say, please remember the vital fact, while I go 
around it and approach it from another side. 

A molten or a burning world, rotating upon an axis, as the 
earth does, will fling its great atmosphere of vaporized water, 
mineral and metallic matter into rings in its equatorial regions. 
1 cannot, in the short time I have to address you, give very 
much evidence to prove this proposition. It is, however, sus- 
ceptible of the clearest mathematical demonstration. I will sim- 
ply state a few facts and ask you to admit it, and, if you are 
ever fortunate or unfortunate enough to read the " Earth's An- 
nular Theory," you will find the startling demonstration there in 
full and so simple a child can understand it. 

The exhaustless and measureless energy of heat exerted to 
vaporize the refractory minerals and metals, now glowing and 
sparkling in millions of stars — grand central fires of other sys- 
tems — ^must drive these vapors so far into space that, as they 
necessarily obey the mighty impetus given them by the orb's ro- 



Appendix. 381 

tation, they accumulate so much energy that they must continue 
to revolve independently about the central body for a long time 
after the mass becomes cold. The day is not very far distant 
■when it will be admitted on all hands that ring or annular form- 
ation is an indispensable part of planetary evolution. 

We see this necessary and legitimate result of plutonic energy 
beautifully and grandly exemplified in the clockwork of the skies. 
Jupiter and Saturn, twin giants of the solar system, proclaim 
this eternal truth across the mighty void that separates this 
puny world from them. See hoAv gloriously they thread their 
course through the heavens, Titanic worlds yet unfinished. A 
great part of their oceans and much of their future sedimentary 
crust are yet revolving about them as vapors and meteoric dust. 
Jupiter has belts, material belts, revolving about him, and Saturn 
has both rings and belts. It can be readily demonstrated by 
physical law that Jupiter's belts were once in the form of con- 
centric rings in his equatorial heavens. Also that Saturn's rings 
nrc gi-adually approaching the planet, and that the belts of both 
planets are gradually falling to their surfaces by way of the 
polar regions. So that the day will come, as sure as law presides 
in the government of heaven, that Saturn will be stripped of her 
glorious appendage. 

Did the earth ever possess such an appendage? There is not 
an astronomer who will say no. There is not a geologist who will 
not say it did after he shall once have examined the geological 
record with an impartial and philosophic eye. Examine the world 
upon which you live! See vvhat stupendous revolutions are 
chronicled in its rocky volume! What is its past history? A 
thousand volumes cannot reveal it all. But there is one chapter 
that 1 will attempt to interpret to-day — a noble chapter, written 
with a pen of fire on immortal stone. What does it say ? On its 
title page we read : " When the dial finger of time pointed to the 
dawn of ages the earth was a burning world." It rolled through 
space a glowing sun. Its rocky beds were molten and the oceans 
that now wash the rock-bound shores were held in suspension on 
high by the repelling powder of heat. This igneous or fiery con- 
dition of the earth in primeval times is admitted on all hands. 
If any question has ever been settled by the philosophy of man, 
this one has. Then the earth was no exception in its mode of 
evolution in the universe of worlds; and all its present oceans 
and a part of every substance now found in its upper crust ex- 
isted in its great primeval atmosphere. What a wondrous atmos- 
phere that was! Twenty miles of aqueous strata tell us what 



382 The Earth's Annular System. 

it was composed of. Mixed with a mighty fund of silicon, calcium, 
iron, copper, lead, silver, gold, sodium, oxygen and hydrogen was 
an immensity of carbon. All the carbon now in the lime beds 
of the world's crust was there; all the carbon in the carbonate 
of iron, zinc and lead, and all the carbonates were there; so 
also the measureless fund of carbon now stored away as coal 
was there. 

But the more extensive the primeval atmosphere the more 
likely are its condensing vapors to be whirled into rings. The 
rim of a wheel must rotate in the same time the rest of it does. 
And, after making all due allowance for the mobility of the mass 
of the great fund of vapors that ever canopied the primitive 
earth, it must be admitted that the boundary of the same moved 
with immense velocity. Now, many eminent men of science ad- 
vance the claim that the atmosphere was at least 240,000 miles 
deep. We will not claim half that depth — say 100,000 miles; but 
the peripheral boundary of an atmosphere of that depth, even, 
if the entire mass rotated once in twenty-four hours, as our at- 
mosphere now does with the earth, had a rotary velocity of 
25,000 miles per hour. But this is nearly 8,000 miles per hour 
more rapidly than it need to move in order to whirl the vapors 
into rings, even if it was not one mile deep or at the surface of 
the earth. 

By means of Kepler's third law it is an easy matter to de- 
termine how deep the atmosphere must have been in order that 
the revolution of the same in twenty-four hours would throw its 
condensed matter into equatorial rings. Any one who will take 
the trouble and make the calculation will see that it need not be 
240,000 miles, nor 100,000 miles, but a little more than 7,000 miles. 
Hence, we are forced to the conclusion that all the primeval va- 
pors situated more than 7,360 miles from the earth's surface 
continued to revolve about their primary center after they grew 
cold and condensed, and all those situated nearer the earth fell 
to its surface because they had not centrifugal energy enough 
to retain them. Such are the demands of law, and I presume 
there is not a mathematical or philosophical mind that can doubt 
this conclusion after having sufficiently contemplated the facts 
that the earth was once in a molten state and rotated as it now 
does. A neglect or failure on the part of the geologists to follow 
the effects of this fiery condition of the primitive earth to this 
legitimate end has led us into pernicious errors. Now where are 
we? We found an immensity of carbon in the primitive form in 
the fiery envelope of the earth; and we now find that it existed 



Appendix. 383 

In the annular form revolving about it, associated with its aque- 
ous oceans of vapor. These two facts stand out prominently in 
the annular theory and challenge the world for a refutation. 
You already know that the whole course of geology has been pur- 
sued with the idea that the waters and their associated matter 
all fell to the earth before any of the aqueous beds were depos- 
ited; that is, they never formed into rings. Now, if these vapors 
never formed into rings, then geologists are right, and I am 
wrong. But a molten world — an igneous era — necessitates ring 
formation; then, if I am wrong in my conclusions, the earth 
^^as never in an igneous condition. But it must be said that we 
simply know it was once in that condition. There is where we 
are — simply forced to the conclusion that elementary carbon, once 
driven from the fire-born earth, revolved about it, and, therefore, 
fell, with its aqueous vapors, in grand instalments. Now keep 
these facts in view while we make another excursion and bring 
up other reinforcements. 

Every philosophic mind will agree with me in the claim that 
if the earth ever was in a burning state, it was also in a smoking 
state. The constitution of the globe is such as to render this a 
necessary and absolute fact. From every fire-place and furnace, 
from every volcano on earth, issues smoke. But smoke is uncon- 
sumed carbon. This carbon is in the form of infinitesimal par- 
ticles, and, being released from various combinations, is, accord- 
ing to chemical law, in what is called its nascent state and eager 
to enter into new combinations. Hence its ready union with the 
oxygen of the air, as any chemist can prove, by which smoke be- 
comes invisible in a short time. But nascent carbon or smoke 
lias an affinity for hydrogen, and if it cannot obtain oxygen it 
will dissolve or decompose aqueous vapor and appropriate its 
hydrogen, forming a hydro-carbon, after which the oxygen just 
released combines with it, forming an oxy-hydro-carbon. Were it 
not, then, for the presence of oxygen in the air, the mighty vol- 
umes of smoke that eternally arise from millions of chimneys 
would, in a short time, fill the atmosphere with midnight black- 
ness. There would be a constant deposit of hydro-carbon in the 
form of soot upon the earth, and men might collect this carbon 
and burn it, as we now do our coal. 

Let any one watch the black column of unconsumed carbon 
issuing from a locomotive burning bituminous coal. In how short 
a time it vanishes in air. It is simply undergoing a second com- 
bustion — a union with oxygen. Or you may perform a more sim- 
ple experiment by burning a rag or piece of paper in the open air. 



384 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

The carbonized paper or rag lying before you may be lighted 
and made to burn again. A slow combustion will spread over 
it again and again, until the carbon becomes invisible, leaving 
nothing but ashes. You have seen this secondary combustion 
many a time in your soot-clogged chimneys and stove-pipes. You 
have seen a transient flame play over the back wall covered 
with an oily soot. 

These are manifestations of unchanging law. They exhibit an 
ocular demonstration of the fact that smoke or unconsumed car- 
bon, from whatever source it comes, is again formed into fuel, 
and will burn again. And if, as it arises from the furnaces of the 
earth, it could be stored away among watery vapors, where 
oxygen could not play upon it, it would all be burned into an 
oxy-hydro-carbon. What is an oxy-hydro-carbon? It is an oily 
or bituminous substance, composed of carbon, oxygen and hydro- 
gen — the very substance stored away as coal in the earth's 
crust. We are now ready for another vital question. What 
has become of the vast fund of smoke that went up from the 
burning or igneous world? What has become of the unconsumed 
carbon distilled by the earth's inveterate fires? Every man must 
know that it went up and lodged, so to speak, among the sus- 
pended vapors on high, and, being , in immediate contact with, 
them, in a very ocean of hydrogen, it must have become a hydro- 
carbon. Now it does not make a particle of difference whether 
the smoke issues from the flying locomotive, from Etna's fiery 
entrails, or from millions of telluric flames, the distillation of 
carbon is the same, and it can make no difference whether it hov- 
ers in the atmosphere or is flying with volcanic force thousands 
of miles into space; it is governed by the same immutable law. 
In the atmosphere the oxygen devours it, and it vanishes; but 
beyond the atmosphere, under the cope of heaven, among the 
whirling vapors, it lodges as soot-black hydro-carbon. 

Now, where are we? First, we had carbon as a primitive ele- 
ment, before the dawn of vegetation. Therefore it was not a 
vegetable product. Next, we find it revolving in the earth's 
annular system as carbonaceous rings, and vegetation did not 
put it there. Next, we find those rings to consist of a black,, 
sooty, oily, pitchy hydro-carbon, sent up from the fiery focus 
of the planet, and yet vegetation has taken no part in the grand 
metaphysis. Keep these facts in mind awhile. 

The hydro-carbon seen by the mind's eye as dark rings and 
bands surrounding the primitive earth, just as the dark carbon- 
aceous bands of Jupiter and Saturn surround those primaries 



Appendix. 385 

to-day, and the hydro-carbon buried in our rock-ribbed hills, are 
one and the same thing. The vapors have fallen, and the car- 
bon must have fallen with it. Titan hands have gathered it and 
stored it away for the use of man — he mines it and burns it 
again. 

Now, why should men conclude that vegetation is necessary 
for the formation of carbon beds, when this element, it must be 
admitted, existed as a combustible fuel before a plant germ ever 
existed in the earth? The formation of carbon from peat moss 
is a combustion or redistillation precisely similar, except in de- 
gree, to that which took place amid the aqueous vapors on high. 
Could we take the carbonized paper or rag in our experiment be- 
fore it burns again, and place it side by side with peat-formed 
carbon, they would be precisely the same in kind. As the peat 
moss decays — or, in other words, is consumed — a charred product, 
which falls amid the waters of the bog, remains unconsumed, 
whereas, if it had remained in the open air, it would have van^ 
ished in air. So that the slov/ combustion in a peat bog becomes 
our first witness; and a very important witness it is. Its testi- 
mony is that, if the puny combustion that takes place in the 
decay of peat moss can produce carbon in small quantities, just 
as soot is formed in the combustion of wood or any other car- 
bonaceous substance, then the mighty, stupendous and Titanic 
combustion of archsean times must have produced an infinite and 
measureless amount of it, and, being a primitive distillation, it 
must have made a purer product. 

It must be with a full knowledge of the fact that peat car- 
bon is but a secondary transformation that the vegetarian takes 
this primitive carbon, already a combustible fuel, and made so 
by inexorable law, but disregarding the smoking furnace of the 
infant earth, conceives it to be the unburnt product of peat 
moss, when he must know that so sure as this earth was once 
in a molten state its rising carbon vapors were changed into fuel 
carbon among the aqueous vapors on high. He simply substitutes 
for that grand distillation the slow decay of vegetation. Now 
every one in the house must see that a necessarily stupendous 
production of fuel carbon is thus abnegated by a mere triviality.. 
Must we deny the testimony of the geologic record; the testi- 
mony of our sister planets; the evidence of the sun and stars, 
in order that the vegetarian may conceive that to a peculiar 
class of plants are delegated these grand offices of world making? 
You see that if he admits the agency of telluric heat, he already 
has carbon fuel on hand; and if he calls in the aid of the spon- 



386 The Earth's Annular System. 

taneous fires of the peat marsh, he only substitutes an utterly 
inadequate process to make what was made before. 

Now I must give a little history. During a long and tedious 
series of experiments I demonstrated that the soot arising from 
burning wood or coal would dissolve aqueous vapor and become a 
fuel. Then I knew that the smoke that arose from the burning 
world and entered the suspended vapors did the same. I had 
a little sack of soot stored away in my laboratory and cabinet 
with which I was experimenting. While I was eager to satisfy 
myself that soot becomes a hydro-carbon in the air, nature was 
secretly at work in an effort to draw this work to a conclusion, 
for the sack of soot had become so far hydrogenated that it one 
day began to oxidize in earnest. It took lire spontaneously, 
thus proving the very thing I had been claiming. It was a 
dearly-bought demonstration, but it was conclusive. In that 
building I had placed my geological cabinet; specimens, many 
hundreds of them, more valuable to me than gold, the work of 
thirty years of search; my telescope, the work of my own hands 
— all my tools and drawings — ruined or destroyed. It seemed a 
little severe that all these things should be offered up, a burn- 
ing sacrifice, to prove that the unconsumed carbon arising from 
every fire place, from every volcano, from every planet, star or 
sun in the universe, became a fuel hydro-carbon. As I looked 
down upon the ruins a voice seemed to whisper, "It will be 
beauty for ashes." 

That conflagration proved to me, and proves to all men, 
that somev.'here in the earth's crust must exist a combustible 
form of carbon, sent up from the igneous world. Where is it? 
Vv^here is it? The man who answers this question solves a mo- 
mentous problem. 

Geaphite. — It is evident that if coal be a vegetable product, 
all other carbon beds must also be of vegetable origin, so that 
geologists agree with Dana that those vast beds of graphite, 
found in the oldest aqueous formations, are as much a vegetable 
formation as peat itself. But right here they meet a stumbling 
block which they can neither leap over nor circumvent. The lau- 
rentian gi'aphite was deposited in an age when vegetation, so far 
as can be determined, did not grow. No vegetable fossils can be 
found either in the graphite itself or its associated beds. Geolo- 
gists have never found a reliable or satisfactory trace of a plant 
in ancient graphite or near it. 

Now it will avail nothing to advance the claim that vegetable 
fossil prints have been obliterated from the crystalline rocks, 



Appendix. 387 

for in these very rocks the delicate form of the eozoon has been 
preserved. 

Considering the immense amount of archaean graphite, it is 
simply impossible that some traces of plants should not be found 
in it or near it, if it were a vegetable product. Let us examine 
this form of carbon in the light of the annular theory. 

Whenever carbon is distilled, either from wood, oil or bones 
or limestone, many allotropic forms of carbon may be obtained. 
We call them light and heavy forms. These are interestingly 
illustrated in the manufacture of burning gas from coal or coal 
oil, or in the process of refining crude petroleum. Here heavy 
forms of carbon are distilled as asphaltum graphite, so that it 
is well known that these are necessary products of all such 
distillations. Hence the igneous world must have yielded all 
such allotropic carbon, and the heaviest forms, as graphite, etc., 
must have existed almost exclusively in that part of the annular 
system nearest the earth, and must, therefore, have fallen and 
became incorporated among the oldest sedimentary rocks. Its 
weight must have located it near the earth, according to law, and 
its position must have necessitated its fall to the earth before the 
lighter forms. Its present position is simply a result of annular 
arrangement previously determined by law in the vaporous at- 
mosphere. Thus, you see, while the old theory utterly fails to ac- 
count both for the origin and position of graphite, the new one 
shows why there are no traces of vegetation there, why it occu- 
pies the position it does, and gives the only philosophic origin that 
can be given. Now, suppose it w^as not found in these early-formed 
beds, but bodily among the carbon beds of the tertiary rocks. Any 
one can see that the annular theory would fail to account for it. 
But primitive graphite can never be found in any other position, 
except in small quantities. Hence, we must admit its intimate con- 
nection with the annular system. Thus, in support of the annular 
theory, I find the graphite just as I want to find it, and, more- 
over, just wfiere 1 want to. The vegetarian finds it as he don't 
want to, and where he don't want to. Choose ye this day whom 
ye will believe. 

An Aqueous Formation. — The general appearance of a coal 
seam is that of an aqueous deposit. Examine it where you 
choose — among the Appalachian metamorphie centers or at any 
point in the undisturbed beds of the Mississippi Valley, pocketed 
in prairie lands or stored in the everlasting hills, or in that grand- 
est and greatest of coal fields stretching from Mexico to the 
north polar sea — you cannot close your eyes to the universal 



388 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

evidence that all these coal seams were planted at the bottom 
of the sea, and not in a peat swamp at its surface level. 

It is everywhere planted immediately upon a sea-formed bed. 
Thin, aqueous seams or partings run through it, and a sea-formed 
bed is planted upon it. And, if the coal in the very center of 
these deposits is a vegetable product, there is no human eye that 
can tell where the sea deposit ends and swamp formation begins. 
Every day, almost, I meet with these evidences. Sometimes a 
limestone stratum is almost the immediate covering of a coal 
seam, and again almost its immediate base. But limestone 
formations were deposited in the quiet seas. There are in this 
part of Ohio more than a dozen coal seams, and extending from 
here to the Ohio Pdver, Belmont County is underlain with a 
dozen hea\^ lime-rock strata, and these are interspersed among 
the coal beds; and, more frequently than otherwise, they are in 
close proximity to the coal. Vegetarians say these things require 
that the " waters of the ocean should be very near." This forced 
admission is more amusing than philosophic, and yet I must agree 
to it. The waters of the ocean were very near — very. 

BouLDEES. — Again and again boulders are found embedded 
in the coal in such position as to show that they were carried to 
the spot in floating ice, or trees, at the very time the bed was 
forming. This, as any one can see, demands that the bed was 
forming at the bottom of the sea. In the museum at Columbus 
is a boulder found in the midst of a coal seam. It was torn 
fTom its native crystalline bed, worn and glaciated by ice, before 
it was imbedded in the coal. Our State geologist says, " Ice 
transport would seem almost necessary for such a block,'* and 
aU agree that the waters in which it was transported " were very 
near." 

Why should it be " almost necessary " for ice to be involved 
in the transportation of ice-worn and ice-borne boulders? Sim- 
ply because a fuller concession involves the reputed origin of coal 
in irretrievable contradiction. 

Coal Paktixgs. — I would I had an hour to devote to the 
consideration of the thin, laminated partings in toal, sometimes 
not thicker than paper, frequently not the eighth of an inch, and 
fecmetimes half an inch, extending over thousands of square miles. 
There is not a living man who can account for the mysterious 
frati.res of these partings by the current theory without oppos- 
ing law and reason. If, for instance, the lower bench of a di- 
vided seam is a product of vegetation, the roots of which were 
planted in the clay bed below, where is the root bed or the 



Appendix, 389 

upper bench? In a clay parting of half an inch thickness? Where 
is the vegetation that this thin clay or sand parting ought to 
have involved, as it accumulated over the swamp plant, etc.? 
Blades and twigs and moss stems should rise vertically through 
such partings, for the mud and sand must have been deposited 
around them. But the vegetation was not there! There can be 
but one conclusion: These partings would show the vegetation 
if it had been there. 

Numerous Seams. — We have in Eastern Ohio more than a 
dozen coal seams, varying from a few inches to nine or twelve 
feet in thickness. A twelve-foot seam required nearly one hun- 
dred feet of vegetation — so said the illustrious Dana. In Nova 
Scotia are more than seventy different seams; one of them is 
thirty-five feet thick, another fifteen, and another twelve. Two 
hundred and forty feet of accidental soot or unconsumed carbon, 
according to the current theory, escaped the peat bed combina- 
tion and formed Nova Scotia's heaviest bed of coal. More than 
one hundred seams are found in England. According to the cur- 
rent theory, each bed records a submergence of a peat swamp, 
and subsequent re-elevation — a re-elevation just above the ocean's 
level, seventy or one hundred times, is a remarkably accommo- 
dating series of telluric changes. 

Now, let us take another glance at the annular system. 
You see it, darkened by carbonaceous rings, bands or belts, every 
one of which must fall to the earth as a great installment of car- 
bon, and each must float aw^ay and be deposited in the sea. If 
it be a true representation, it first corrects the impression that 
the formation of carbon beds belongs exclusively to any age. 
While certain periods or ages are characterized by a more abund- 
ant downfall than others, it is plain that, as smoke and vapors 
of water are so nearly of the same gravity, all aqueous vapor of 
the igneous age must have more or less been mixed with car- 
bonaceous matter. The geological record is positive in the 
declaration that carbon was more or less deposited in all geo- 
logic times, from the very day in which the heaviest form of 
graphite fell and was buried in the heavy metalliferous beds of 
archsean time to that grand deluge of modern time, yet living in 
the traditions of man. We can, therefore, no longer marvel at 
the number of carbon or coal veins. As superaerial carbon and 
other matter must, under law, fall largely in the polar regions, 
we can no longer wonder why the number of coal beds increase 
toward the North; no longer wonder that heavy deposits of coal 
were made in lands now locked up in eternal ice. 



390 The Earth's Annular System. 

Equatorial Coals. — If coal be a vegetable product, then 
surely in those regions of the earth where vegetation in all time 
has been the most luxuriant we should find the greatest develop- 
ment of coal. Then, if we find such vast beds as I have before 
alluded to, in the latitude of Nova Scotia, in the valley of the 
Mackenzie, in the hill lands of Siberia, what must we expect to 
find in tropical lands, under the equator? But where is the coal 
of the tropics? It is rather scarce, Xow, can it be possible that 
there has never been an opportunity offered, in the perpetual 
oscillation of sea and land, that the vegetarian claims for swamp 
and peat formation in the tropics? Have the equatorial lands 
during these subsidences and elevations always been too deeply 
covered with water, or elevated so far above the waves 
as not to permit swamp vegetation and coal formation? 
Why were aU these wondrously-accommodating changes of 
sea level confined to colder regions? ^\'hat a happy circum- 
stance it would be if the vegetarian could point to such great 
coal basins in the tropics as we find almost everywhere beyond 
them! Now, if he could do this, it would be a bad thing for the 
annular theory. I would be forced to admit that it essentially 
failed in one particular, and was therefore a failure. But here, 
as in the case of the graphite, the coal is nearly absent from the 
very lands which the new theory claims must contain the least. 
TeUurio-cosmic matter could have fallen directly in very limited 
quantities in the equatorial regions, more largely in the temper- 
ate zones, and in the greatest quantities in the frigid zone. This 
is susceptible of the clearest mathematical and philosophic 
demonstration. All the coal that lies within the tropics must 
have been borne thither as carbon dust from other lands or other 
waters, and all the coal in these lands must necessarily have the 
least specific gravity. Those coals in the southern part of the 
north temperate zone will in turn be found specifically lighter 
after a fair test (and an elimination of foreign matter) than 
those in the northern part, and the nearer we approach the 
polar world the heavier and purer we will find the coal. I will 
give the theory over to these final and decisive tests. If the at- 
mosphere were filled with cosmic dust to-day this matter would 
fall most rapidly at the poles, because gravity there is the 
. strongest. In addition to this, the centrifugal force in the rotat- 
ing mass at the equator would somewhat check its fall there. 
The upward currents of air, also, in the torrid, and the downward 
motion in the temperate and frigid zones are distinct causes 
operating to decrease the fall under the equator and increase that 



Appendix. 391 

at the poles. But terrestrial belts, like those of the Jovine and 
Saturnian worlds, would, according to law, move from the equa- 
tor to the poles before they came down into the lower air. For 
this very reason, then, the annular theory would utterly fail 
if coal were found more abundantly in lower latitudes than the 
middle temperate regions. It would fail if we did not find it in 
abundance in extreme polar lands. It would fail if the northern 
coals were not heavier and purer in carbon. Now the vegetation 
theory utterly fails to explain these anomalies, and its advocates 
will grope in darkness and error as long as they cling to it. Long 
ago I predicted that great beds of anthracite and bituminous coal 
would be found in coming ages to underlie the great basin and 
plateau of British America. England, in the possession of that 
vast territory, is richer than if she owned all the gold mines 
in the world. These are only some of the decisive tests of the 
correctness of this theory. Their name is legion. I will select 
one more and close this evidence. 

Carbon in Ice. — The aqueous vapors above the firmament 
must have fallen in the polar world as terrific downfalls of snow. 
The black carbonaceous matter of the system must have fallen 
with them. Such a downfall to-day in the polar regions would 
soon dissipate the great polar ice caps, on account of their ab- 
sorbing solar heat, and the extreme arctic and antarctic climate 
would be so ameliorated that vegetation would cover all their 
land areas as it did the great northern continent in pre-glacial 
times. A slight downfall, however, would not affect climate to 
any great extent. The northern snows that formed into glacier 
ice would also contain the carbon dust. But if we should find 
great carbon beds frozen up in everlasting snow and ice, is there 
any man upon this planet who would claim that it was a vegeta- 
ble product? But these ice-imprisoned beds are simply facts of 
ocular demonstration. To-day carbon beds may be found along 
the shores of the north polar seas. On the coast of Kotzebue 
Sound rise masses of ancient glacier ice above the waves. This 
ice is planted on seams of carbon, and, what is more astonish- 
ing, just beneath the carbon beds are solid beds of ice, extending 
downward as far as the ocean waves have permitted examination. 
Now what does this mean? We might find carbon beds in rocks 
baked and crystalline under the reign of fire, and imagine it the 
product of vegetation. But here, in the snow-bound islands of 
the polar deep, packed in eternal ice, ice above and ice below, 
we will bury the old theory and erect the new. There it is, just 
as the annular theory demands. Carbon beds found planted upon 



392 The Earth's Annular System. 

a pavement of ice, just where the new theory wants to find it, 
and just where the old does not want to find it. 

A vast fund of carbon is found deeply buried in the frozen 
mud and sand in Northern Siberia. At Yakutsk, and in other 
places, deep wells have been dug or bored, and the deepest have 
never reached the limit of eternal frost. The strata, so far as 
the auger has explored, are alternating beds of frozen sand, 
frozen mud and frozen carbon, of course called peat. It is said 
that this part of Siberia is solidly frozen to a depth of at least 
six hundred feet. Can it be possible that the earth could have 
frozen to that depth after the carbon beds grew as peat vegeta- 
tion? It cannot be. These beds must have frozen as they were 
built up. Did peat grow in that way? Thus, in every nook and 
corner of the earth, we find the strongest evidence of the truth 
that the various forms of carbon now found in the crust of the 
earth is almost wholly a primitive product of igneous time. 
But let us remember that the coal question is only a smaU part 
of the grand problem. The annular theory had been proven to 
be true before the coal was ever thought of in connection with it. 

A little reflection will now lead you to the conclusion that 
the only difference between the geologists ot to-day and myself 
is that they pull one way; I pull the other. We all started in 
the same direction. I am going the same way that I started. 
We parted company on the confines of paleozoic time. At that 
point they said all the matter in the earth's primeval atmosphere 
fell previous to that time. I said but a small part of it had then 
fallen, and the rest remained revolving, as the Saturnian rings 
are to-day. The difference between us in the beginning seemed 
slight, indeed. How easy it would have been to have admitted 
the truth then! Had it been done, almost every department of 
physical science would be to-day a century further on its way. 
But, slight as the difference was in the beginning, there has been 
a great divergence in the lines to important conclusions. One 
has led to error and falsehood; the other to immaculate truth. 

The old school utterly fails to explain some principal ques- 
tions in geology; the new challenges the presentation of a geo- 
logic question it cannot explain. The former antagonizes law; 
the latter demonstrates and defends it. 

Xow, if need be, I will set the carbon question aside and 
prove the truth of this theory from other geological evidence 
without its aid. Nay, the whole field of geological evidence may 
be disregarded, and the theory proven by astronomical science, 
backed by mathematical law. Or, if you choose, we will set aside 



Appendix. 393 

all scientific evidence, and the first eight chapters of Genesis 
will champion the cause and prove its truth, even to a world of 
Voltaires, Paines and Ingersolls. Oh, the grandeur of this amaz- 
ing field of thought! I invite you to enter this untrodden re- 
gion. If we do not explore it, let me assure you, other men will 
do it in other times. I have put my hand to the work: I cannot 
turn back, and shall welcome all men to my assistance. I have 
already detained you too long, but I knew it was to the teachers 
of these times that I must expect to delegate the charge and 
championship of this theory, that must meet the marshaled hosts 
of veterans that will oppose it. The young and unfettered in- 
tellects of this and coming days will see the ruins of the old 
theory. But the change will be slow. Twenty-five years ago, 
when I began to advocate the annular theory, men smiled over 
the attempt of a young man to claim the discovery of anything 
new in geologic or astronomic science; and when their attention 
was directed to the annular system of Saturn as the grand key 
that unlocked the deep mysteries of planetary evolution, they 
said there was no force in the claim. When told that the primi- 
tive earth, molten and beaming as a sun, necessitated ring 
formation, and that astronomers and geologists, in their reck- 
oning, had never taken into account the potential energy stored 
up in the annular vapors revolving on high, in that day of 
fervent heat, they still remained silent. When asked how the 
oceans returned to the earth, after they hung for unknown time 
thousands of miles beyond the atmosphere of the day, still no 
answer came. When told that the oceans, in great part, fell to 
the earth in deluges of terrific violence in modern geologic time 
{sub-silurian), the idea was visionary and anti-scriptural. When 
told that the coal deposits of the world could be nothing more 
nor less, under the demands of law, than aqueous deposits of 
primitive carbon distilled in Vulcan's mighty alembic, and which 
was sent up amid the aqueous vapors where it became a hydro- 
carbon, thoughtful men began to think; others turned away to 
laugh. 

When scientists put forth the astounding information that 
a mighty ice sheet, thousands of feet thick, pushed down from 
the far north and leveled our hills and filled our valleys, oblit- 
erating rivers and lakes, and they were told that such a fund 
of snow must have fallen from telluric rings of vapor in the 
polar regions, some men said a profound mystery has been 
solved; others said, " Oh, no." Finally, when, in 1874, I published 
a little volume presenting some of these questions more generally 



394 TJie Earth's Annular System. 

to the public eye, and especially called attention to the fact that 
the great deluge of Noah was a down-rush of the last remnant 
of annular waters, I received some of the most flattering com- 
mendations on the one hand, and on the other some of the most 
excoriating and denunciatory criticisms for thus " treading on 
holy ground." 

Now what is the result of not admitting the unavoidable 
conclusion that the oceans did not and could not all fall in prim- 
eval times? I need not tell you. You see the world is hard to 
be moved, but it does move none the less, and let me tell you, 
though the thought may savor of vanity, it is moving into a new 
orbit. It is ripening — ripening for a golden age of thought. It 
is drifting to the border-land of the annular theory. How could 
it be otherwise? Law, eternal and inexorable law, is its founda* 
tion, and thither it must gravitate. 

In conclusion, then, let me say I have passed over this amazing 
field of thought so often, and have found so much incontroverti- 
ble evidence that I no longer care for nor fear opposition, come 
from what source it may. 

This world was once surrounded by an annular system. The 
coal now sleeping in the crust of the earth was a part of that 
system. See the amazing wisdom of God in thus gathering it 
from the fiery center of the earth for man, storing it away near 
the surface, where alone he can get at it. Had the earth never 
been in an igneous state, all the carbon must have been dis- 
seminated through the entire earth, and there could not have 
been a true coal bed. When men will open their eyes and look 
they must see that the burning, smoking, boiling and seething 
earth must have made measureless quantities of unconsumed 
carbon, and they must see that they have been clinging to and 
preaching a pernicious error. Geology will then be placed upon 
its true and immutable foundation. Genesis will then stand the 
test of philosophy in the view of all men. Eevealed and natural 
religion will walk hand in hand, and even the skeptic must see 
that the first eight chapters of Genesis contain in simple but 
unmistakable terms a complete and positive demonstration of 
the annular theory, thus conveying in the noblest thoughts some 
of the grandest truths, revealing an Edenic world the most fas- 
cinating, and a sunlight the purest that ever illumined the world. 
Oh, haste that glad time! Haste the day and the hour when the 
unnatural conflict between the theologian and scientist will cease 
forever; when the discordant elements may be allowed to rest in 
the calm repose of death; when man, fallen and weak, may arise 



Appendix. 395 

more nearly in the image of God, the great Philosopher and 
Architect of the material universe, whose mighty hand has ruled 
the evolving world in all time, whether swaddled in flames and 
rocked in a cradle of fire, or blooming in the pure sunlight of 
eternal day. 



CAPTAIN CAHTEE'S OEIGINAL DEMONSTRATION. 

On page 27 of this volume is a simple calculation, showing the 
distance of a terrestrial ring from the earth's surface. Prof. 
Carter took up the same calculation and obtained the same re- 
sult within a very few decimals, and with this calculation sent 
the following demonstration by a new and original method. 
These calculations prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that 
vapors in the primitive atmosphere, at the distance of about 
26,000 miles from the earth's center, had a velocity in revolution 
that kept them there, while those vapors nearer the earth fell, 
and hence the earth had a ring or rings. Thus it is susceptible 
of the clearest mathematical and philosophical demonstration 
that this earth was once surrounded by a system of Saturn-like 
rings and belts; that the aqueous-formed crust was to no small 
extent built up under its influence cannot admit of a reasonable 
doubt; and the measureless periods of geologic time are thus 
necessarily shortened. 

Problem. Required the orbifal radius or distance of a satel- 
lite of the earth, the time of revolution being given. 

Let f = centrifugal force of satellite (ring), v = velocity of 
same, n = number of seconds in time of revolution. R = mean 
orbital radius of satellite, or distance from the earth's center, 
g = gravity at earth's equator, g' = gravity at satellite or ring, 
and P = earth's equatorial radius. 

27r R 
Now V = —^ — from Mechanic's formula (1). 

V2 
Also f = -^ from Mechanic's formula (2). 

gP2 

Likewise g^= -^ from Mechanic's formula (3). 
Substituting (1) in (2) we have 

_ 4;r2R2 _ 4 7r2R 
^— n2R — n2 
But f = g^ from the conditions of the problem, 



396 The EarWs Annular System. 

4;r2R gP2 
hence, ^2 = %2" or 4 7r2 R3 ^ g qJ pa 



And R = b/^ "" ^'^ 

7:2 



si 47 



Now, in this case, P = 20,923,600 ft., n = 86,164 seconds, 
g = 32.1937 and TT = 3.141592, and therefore. 



E=J32, 



1937 (86,164)2 (20,923,600)2 

4(3.141592)2 — ^-^1 



times the earth's equatorial radius, = 26,194.01 miles. 

R. K. Carter, 

Chester, Pa. 



THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 

A LECTURE, BY PROF. I. N. VAIL. 



Los Angeles, Cal., June 21st, 1900. 



In this hall, not long ago, I listened to a learned discourse 
by a prominent geologist of the current school on the origin of 
the oily carbons. We were told that the immeasurable ocean of 
oil now locked up in the rocky bosom of Mother Earth " was cer- 
tainly an organic product, and that the organisms involved in its 
formation were principally fishes." To this I may add: Such 
is the prevailing opinion of geologists to-day, and, in view of 
the high regard I have for many workers in this vast field, I am 
not disposed to molest them in their blissful attitude, though 
I want to assure my audience here to-night that I am not pres- 
ent to talk on fish oil, but to give some new and biu-ning testi- 
mony, which more than thirty years of deep study of nature's 
eternal processes have linked to my very being. We have come 
to hear a lecture on the " Origin of Petroleum," or rock oil, a 
mineral product of the mineral earth — a product with which, as 
I see it, never a fish nor a mollusk, nor any other organism, 
either animal or vegetable, had the remotest connection. I hold 
in my hand a little book, published in 1874. It gives, in brief, 
the substance of my earliest lectures, delivered away back in the 
'60's, in an effort to prove that in all geologic time the earth had 



Appendix. 397 

an annular or ring system, such as the planet Saturn has to-day. 
That the progiessive collapse of that system made all the " ages " 
and all the " deluges " the earth ever saw. Also, that the deluge 
of Noah, coming from that source, closed the grand drama of 
geologic revulsions. 

With this as our basic thought, I vs'ant us to go back in imag- 
ination to the very morn of geologic time, to see how the earth 
got its rings, and what they were made of. We will make the 
attempt, and my word for it now, we will find that those rings 
were made out of the fiery exhalations that went up to the 
skies from the molten earth. We know what those exhalations 
were, for we know what the earth's elements are to-day, and 
her compounds, too. We know the oceans, vaporized, were there, 
and all else of the molten planet that inveterate heat could 
vaporize and sublime, and force into chemical activity and union. 
We know, too, that these fiery sublimations went to the ter- 
restrial skies, and I want to show you that it was just as 
natural and inevitable for an ocean of oily hydro-carbons to go 
there as an ocean of water, and we all know that all the terres- 
trial waters were driven aloft when the earth was rocked in its 
cradle of flame. Let us see. 

In the first place, I do not oppose the claim that organic 
decomposition, by the aid of heat, is competent to form oily 
compounds. I do not deny that fishes and crustaceans can be 
treated in the chemist's retort and made to form hydro-carbons, 
for that is nature's process when the necessary elements are at 
hand for the work, whether in the crucible of the chemist or 
in the world furnace of the molten era. I simply oppose the con- 
clusion that geologists have drawn from this experiment. That 
fishes may be thus made to form oily products is no testimony 
to the claim that the inhabitants of the devonian and carbon- 
iferous oceans made the vast fund of petroleum, or any part of 
it. For it is a fact well known to the chemists that apples and 
pumpkins, as well as oysters, may be made to yield hydro-car- 
bons, and are we to draw these innocent organisms from their 
legitimate field? It makes no difference whether the hydrogen 
and carbon involved in the great world process of oil-making 
came from animal or mineral forms. 

Now, we know that there was an immeasurable amount of 
hydrogen and carbon in the molten earth, and we know they 
had no organic source. They came from the great unknowTi 
source of elements, and the Great Chemist had them in His 
retort, — the igneous earth, — and His fires raged about them for 



398 The Earth's Annular System. 

millions of years. In the name of law and reason, h.ow could 
He fail to make them combine in that Titanic furnace, and be 
thus compelled in after ages to call in the puny aid of the 
fish? If we are to believe the prevailing geologic proposition, it 
Avas certainly a grand opportunity lost. 

Let us watch the gas-maker and learn a lesson in philosophic 
world-making as he fills his retort and starts his fires. He may 
fill it with coal, or wood, paper, hair, or even with fish. With 
a moderate heat he drives out the watery elements, and we see 
a jet of steam coming out as the first product. In a short time, 
as the heat is increased, this jet of steam gives place to one 
of smoke. This is a form of carbon, and it is readily oxidized in 
the air and soon becomes invisible. It is burnt up; and here 
we learn that smoke is unburnt fuel. We also learn from 
analogy that if the molten earth was a smoking world, it was 
God's mighty fuel-former, before a bud or plant or an animal 
existed on the globe. And here it is impossible to avoid the 
conclusion that beyond a doubt a great fund of unconsumed car- 
bon went from the molten earth to the skies, unless it was 
caught in an ocean of oxygen and burnt up, and this was hardly 
possible. But let us watch our retort. By raising the tempera- 
ture further, the jet becomes a light hydro-carbon, plus carbon, 
an impure illuminant. A still higher temperature expels a 
heavier hydro-carbon, and, as the heat becomes intense, oily hy- 
dro-carbons supervene. If, now, a jet of superheated steam be 
forced into the retort, all these products are increased and en- 
riched, and when the fires are allovred to cool, and the retort 
opened, we find a tarry form of carbon as a residuum, mingled 
with asphaltic or graphitic products, — all this done by the puny 
fires of the chemist. Compared with those of the molten earth, 
we place the infinitely small beside the immeasurably great, and 
ask what did the great world-retort expel from its boiling and 
surging entrails? 

Now, there are some things known in the proposition we have 
in hand. It is known that this earth, in the dawn of geologic 
time, was an igneous, incandescent mass; and, whether M^e choose 
to call it the Great Chemist's crucible, a flaming sun, or scintil- 
lating star, it is all one in the grand scheme of world making. 
Fire held dynamic control. It is known that carbon and hydro- 
gen were two all-abounding elements in that primitive furnace. 
It is known that carbon and hydrogen, thus conditioned, actively 
seek combination, and unless they passed through a sea of free 
oxygen on their way to the skies, they arose as oily products 



Appendix, 399 

of the infant earth and filled the surrounding heavens, — light 
carbons, heavy carbons, asphaltic and graphitic carbons; and we 
know, too, that all this occurred long, long before the day of 
fishes. It is known that the vaporized oceans were there, a world 
of superheated steam, and took an active part in this plan of 
world evolution, ever active and eager to increase and enrich 
the planet's oily products. It is known that the resolution and 
decomposition of world matter in its primitive stage is not dif- 
ferent from that of matter in its secondary condition, except in 
degree of competency; hence, if the decomposition of organic 
matter can make petroleum in infinitesimal quantities by bring- 
ing nascent carbon and hydrogen into contact, how much more 
must have been produced when all the hydrogen and carbon of 
the molten earth came in contact for millions of years, under 
conditions a thousandfold more adequate to effect rapid combin- 
ation? It is, therefore, not so much a question as to the ability 
of the igneous earth to make oily compounds, as to how it could 
have failed to make them. It would be just as reasonable to 
deny the adequacy of the chemist's retort as that of the molten 
earth, since the selfsame elements are treated in the selfsame 
way — comparing the small with the great. 

One of the great lessons we learn at the retort is, that it 
requires a great heat and the presence of steam to make true oily 
hydro-carbons, even with organic matter supplied. A molten 
world supplied inveterate heat and all the elements needed, and 
the chemist can only imitate in the most impractical way what 
nature is continually doing in millions of molten orbs. If the 
geologist denies this universal process he must also deny that 
hydrogen and carbon are universe elements, and so far as our 
world is concerned it cannot be denied, and hence he cannot for 
a moment logically or reasonably oppose the claim I have made 
that all the petroleum of the earth was found in the world 
furnace when it shone out as a star. 

I mention these things to show you that the claims I put forth 
in regard to the primitive igneous origin of petroleum stand on 
a foundation firm and eternal. Law is its basic rock, for every- 
where we see molten orbs, and as surely as carbon and hydrogen 
exist with them they must combine. It is hardly possible that 
conditions can exist on such flaming orbs to prevent their union, 
and we know their union means the formation of oily compounds. 
The only objection that can be urged against the thought is the 
possible surplus of oxygen in such fiery centers. But, so far as 
the earth is concerned, that objection is forever brushed aside by 



400 The JEarth's Annular System. 

the fact that there was not enough oxygen present to saturate 
other elements and burn up other compounds more eagerly 
sought by it. It united with an immeasurable sea of hydrogen 
to form the waters of the earth — the vast oceans that now roll 
around it. The scientist actually measures the free oxygen of 
the molten globe by the aid of known conditions, and we cannot 
but conclude that the primitive hydro-carbons were not con- 
sumed. They are not consumed to-day in the hottest furnace, 
unless a blast of oxygen is forced through it. Millions of fires, 
coke-ovens and furnaces are sending up carbons and hydro-car- 
bons all the time, and we find these fire-formed products lining 
every chimney and smokestack, — sooty hydro-carbons that take 
fire, sometimes, and burn — and we may be sure that the burning 
earth did the same thing, for free oxygen could not have had 
access everywhere into the recesses of the smoking globe. 

This great problem has other known conditions. We all know 
that the rock formation in which oil is found to-day was formed 
at the bottom of the sea by sedimentation — by the depositing 
of matter which floated in the ancient seas. This being the case, 
the hydro-carbon matter that settled in the forming bed also 
floated in the sea at the same time. It is also well known that 
in many places the oil-bearing rock is utterly destitute of ani- 
mal remains. Over wide areas not a fossil of a fish or crustacean 
has been found, and, what is most apparent, no part of those 
beds contain animal remains in quantities suflGicient to make 
even a show of oil. In the same field the oil varies in specific grav- 
ity, as well as in quality. When an oil-bearing stratum is struck 
at a moderate depth, as a rule the oil has less specific grav- 
ity than that found in the same bed at a greater depth. The ad- 
vocates of the fish cannot explain this. Did the different kinds 
of fish make the different kinds of oil? On the supposition that 
these carbons, the products of different degrees of heat, floated 
in the sea, it is easily explained, for the heavier carbons floated 
into deeper water and there settled, while the lighter floated 
higher and settled on higher ground. Thus the waters 
necessarily assorted the different grades of ' carbon before 
they settled, and thus they are separated to-day. Supposing 
a fish should become buried and heat and pressure should begin 
the work of decomposition and oil-making, the light and the 
heavy carbons become locked down together, on the spot, with 
no possible chance for them to become separated. 

My friends, we have seen a world rocked in its primitive 
cradle of fire; we have learned that its waters were all formed 



Appendix, 401 

in inveterate flames by the union of hydrogen with oxygen, 
thus disposing with so much of the latter that the vast amount 
of carbon escaped the devourer, and remains unconsumed and 
locked up in the earth's crust. As all these compounds were 
driven to the skies, we want to know by what process they 
came back to the earth. They were made away back in the 
igneous era, and were stored up in the silurian and later beds, 
shov/ing that they remained in the telluric heavens for many 
millions of years after the earth cooled down. This being the 
case, we are forced to admit that they revolved about the earth, 
as an annular or ring system; for, unless they did revolve 
thus, they would have fallen as the earth grew cold. But we 
know the lapse of time between the molten era and silurian 
time was immeasiirably vast, and it marks the long interval 
during which the carbons rode the skies. Now, they could not 
have remained on high any more than a stone, unless they re- 
volved about the earth, and this means ring formation, for it has 
been practically determined that rotating vapors naturally as- 
sume the ring form. Thus, it would seem that the molten con- 
dition of a planet is the first step to ring conditions, for it is 
then that Avorld vapors go to the skies, until a vast world en- 
velope of aqueous mineral and metallic exhalations is formed. 
It is simply impossible that such an envelope would not form, 
and we know that the earth envelope contained hydro-carbons 
to an immeasurable amount. We know, too, that the whole 
fiery mass rotated. This gave great momentum to the perimeter, 
far in excess of that of the central mass. The perimeter of a 
rotating wheel moves faster than the hub. This being the case, 
the great rim of the primitive earth could not fall as the latter 
grew cold. But it would fall in after times and form stratum 
after stratum on the earth. For mechanical and philosophic rea- 
sons, this great earth-appendage must have fallen in grand in- 
stalments, like so many dust clouds, and was carried to the 
oceans, and borne by currents to different parts of the world. 
During all the time the carbons rode on high they were neces- 
sarily associated with mineral and watery distillations, and when 
they fell they were still thus associated and came down as vast 
deluges of muddy waters. Carried to the seas, they sank to- 
gether, and together they formed oil-bearing beds. Many times 
I have seen oil from wells flow down and float on the surface of 
the Ohio Eiver. During high water the mud particles of the 
stream united with the oil and fell to the bottom of the river, 
forming a thin stratum of oil-bearing ooze. Let us imagine 



402 The Earth's Annular System. 

a world cloud of oily particles thus carried down from on high 
iu deluges of muddy rains. Inevitably they would go to the 
s^Yamps, lakes, seas and oceans of the earth, and form oil-bear- 
ing beds. Imagine such a muddy mass of waters carried down 
the ]\Iississippi and deposited in the Gulf of Mexico, mingling 
with the beds now forming on its bottom, and you can form 
some idea of how oil beds were made of fiery sublimations, first 
formed in the molten earth and driven to the skies, and thence 
in after ages returning to the surface of the planet. Imagine the 
Gulf Stream of the Atlantic as it issues from the Gulf of Mexico 
laden with this oil-steeped matter, and you can see how this 
matter, borne to distant parts of the ocean, would become a part 
of strata now forming there. 

Thus, the oily carbons, formed in the world-alembic of the 
Great Chemist millions of years before a planet or a fish existed 
on the earth, arose together with other fiery distillations; to- 
gether they revolved for long ages while the planet was cooling; to- 
gether they fell and became a part of the world's strata, and 
together they lay in store for the use of man. 

This being the process by which the earth became stored with 
the oily carbons, it is plain that the geologist, to be able to be 
of any practical use in locating oil fields, must familiarize him- 
self as far as possible with the currents of the ancient seas, and 
forever discard the fish. 

But enough of that. You want me to tell you some facts — 
some annular facts about the oil field of Southern California. 
Well, I came to Pasadena in 1887, and in the summer of 1888 
I spent much of the time in search for oil indications, for 1 had 
become convinced that a vast amount of oily carbon must have 
been carried from the northward into the ancient Pacific Ocean, 
and you all know that if that carbon fell in polar lands (and it 
did fall there), it must have been floated into that ocean. Weil, 
the great currents from the west and southwest, it seemed to 
me, must have carried that carbon right toward the coast of 
Southern California. But where was the coast then? The waters 
of the Pacific at that time dashed against the feet of the Sierras 
in a great semi-circular curve, extending from the Santa Bar- 
bara coast to San Bernardino, thence southward by the San Ja- 
cinto Mountains. You can see that much of the lowland, even 
the low hills of Ventura, Los Angeles, and nearly all 
of Orange County, and great part of San Diego County 
were at the bottom of the sea, into which the ocean 
currents rushed with their charges of oily carbons. I spent a 



Appendix. 403 

great deal of thought on this feature of the case, and became 
convinced before 1 came to California that it was oil territory. 
I reasoned that all the geological conditions were favorable for 
the formation of oil beds in the waters of this great semi-cir- 
cular gulf, and therefore it could hardly be possible that they 
were not formed, for we must remember that our theory makes 
oil a world- deposit, and must have been formed wherever cur- 
rents favored it. 

I searched in fullest confidence that I was in an oil field of 
vast extent. In both Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties I 
found oil, not only as it trickled from the rock, but far out on 
the surface of the ocean. This was all sufficient to vindicate 
the theory; for a single instance of oil thus found was compe- 
tent to prove that our hypothetic currents had been at work, 
and if they had been thus at work on the coast of that region, 
it was almost certain that they had operated over the remainder 
of the gulf, and more effectively. From Santa Paula a search 
was made eastward, and a visit to the oil-steeped soil on Tem- 
ple Street, Los Angeles, proved still further that an oil field of 
vast extent existed here. I then went to the Puente Hills, and 
on to the hills north of Fullerton, and found all the evidence 
I wanted to vindicate the claim that all the region from the 
mountains to the sea, and certainly extending far out into the 
ocean, was a great deposit of petroleum. 

Having made these discoveries, I went before the Chamber 
of Commerce in Los Angeles and tried to move that body to 
institute an effort to awaken an interest in them. But the 
great boom was collapsing, and the calm after the tempest made 
my visit a failure. I told that body that petroleum was an 
ancient sea deposit, and the very fact that oil oozed from 
the hills was proof that oil-bearing rock underlaid all the region 
from the hills to the sea, and that the day would come when 
Southern California would prove to be one of the greatest oil 
regions on the continent. The upheaval of the hills on the south 
of the San Gabriel Valley has simply revealed the universal bed 
of hydro-carbons that the ancient currents carried to this region. 
That sea in which the oily carbons floated was a vast one, and 
hence the oily deposit is a vast one, too. We can easily bound 
it on the north, but on the east, south and southwest I cannot 
define its limits. I have repeated in a hundred lectures that 
the field must be very rich toward the south, but more and 
more barren toward the primary mountains. That wells could 
be sunk far out in the ocean with almost a certainty of find- 



404 The Earth's Annular System. 

ing oil — why not? The ocean that received the oil carbons from 
the north world must have been almost a boundless one. The 
same ocean rolled its carbon-laden waters around the San Ja- 
cinto Mountains, over the Salton basin and great Colorado Val- 
ley, and must have deposited a great fund of petroleum there. 
The same ocean and same current swept over the plains of West- 
ern and Southern Arizona, and must have planted some of it 
there. The same ocean penetrated the inland valleys of a great 
part of all the Pacific States, and in all these, wherever currents 
from the west could enter, oil certainly can be found, and even 
up to the Arctic Circle. 

In conclusion, let me add: In prospecting for oil, keep away 
from the primary beds — shun the mountains. They were the 
ancient shore line, and petroleum could hardly settle in such 
shallow waters. The hills in which our oil is found are geologic- 
ally modern upheavals. If you find petroleum or asphalt in one of 
those hills, it is almost certain that all the hills in that neighbor- 
hood are oil-bearing. In a vast ocean carrying primitive car- 
bons, the deposit could hardly be local. A trace of asphalt or 
bitumen simply shows the track of old ocean bearing primitive 
hydro-carbons, and unless it was of local waters, it could hardly 
be a local oil deposit. Of course, there are many local deposits, 
and even in a sea laden with carbons there are necessarily barren 
spots, for, as I have said before, these deposits depend altogether 
upon the caprice of currents. A vast ocean with a vast world- 
current seems to have governed the formation of our petroleum 
beds. Fortunate California! 

Can you contemplate these things and put any reliance what- 
ever on the claim that petroleum had an animal origin? Fishes 
were not subject to the course of currents as primitive distil- 
lates were, and could not make a barren spot in the very midst 
of an oil field. In fact, the old theory of the animal origin of 
oil as it is found in the earth's crust has no support whatever 
in fact. The idea is puerile and cannot stand the light of in- 
telligent progress. 

Granting that the world was molten, these fiery distillates 
follow as a matter of course. Then the earth's ring system, made 
out of aqueous, mineral and metallic vapors, follows as a neces- 
sity. Then comes their progressive decline in the flight of ages, 
and their deposit here, there and everywhere that oceans rolled 
and currents presided. The first thing the oil prospector should 
do is to cast the " fish story " into the scientific dump heap and 
study the amazing scheme of annular world evolution. 



Appendix. 405 

LORD KELVIN ON FREE OXYGEN. 

In a recent lecture by Lord Kelvin, that learned man in 
speaking of the vegetable origin of coal, said: "When the earth 
began to cool it was surrounded by an atmosphere of nitrogen 
and carbonic acid gases without any free oxygen." (Italics mine.) 

It is fitting that I close this volume with a few comments 
upon this startling announcement. If there was no free oxygen 
when the earth Vegan to cool it was certainly very scarce for a 
vast length of time before it began to cool. This, added to the 
millions of years during which it was cooling, gives us an im- 
measurable period when the molten earth had no free oxygen; 
for, according to this learned physicist and his compeers, there 
is no source of free oxygen other than vegetation. 

Standing upon this ground, it must be an uncertain task to 
determine in what part of archsean time there was enough free 
oxygen present to burn up the carbon in the molten earth. It 
could not have been burnt up during the cooling period, nor in 
the vast eon preceding it; for it takes free oxygen to burn car- 
bon, and hence it must have been devoured in the pre-molten 
era. But how and where did that era get its free oxygen? Will 
Lord Kelvin supply it from pre-archsean vegetation ? 

Seriously now, we are compelled to admit that a vast 
amount of the earth's primitive carbon was not consumed at all; 
any more than if it had been placed in a sealed retort and sub- 
jected to inveterate heat. Even if we have to concede that some 
time during the earth's greatest igneous activity free oxygen was 
present we cannot for a moment admit that it was so plentiful 
and so vigilant that no carbon exhalations rising from the seeth- 
ing planet could escape unconsumed into the skies. We cannot 
accomplish this even by driving a current of pure free oxygen 
through our blast furnaces; how much less effectively would free 
oxygen act in the molten era, when trammeled by the presence 
of an atmosphere of fiery elements having a more eager appetite 
for oxygen, than carbon has? 

Granting that the atmosphere of the molten earth was rich 
in carbonic acid (free oxygen united with carbon), where was 
the vegetation that supplied the oxygen, if that be its only 
source? The simple fact is that it makes no difference what 
the ancient or modern source of oxygen was, or is; it could not, 
as law is supreme, consume the carbon of the molten earth. We 
see great beds of nearly pure iron and other metals left uncon- 
sumed, and these we know rapidly deflagrate when heated in free 



406 Tlie Earth's Annular System. 

oxygen. If these metals escaped, carbon could not fail to be 
gathered from the earth's inmost bosom and be borne as an un- 
consumed fuel to the loftiest heights of the primitive atmosphere. 
Especially must this have been the case if " when the earth 
began to cool it was surrounded by an atmosphere of nitrogen 
and carbonic acid gases, without any free oxygen." It is amaz- 
ing to what unnatural conclusions the vegetation theory leads 
the scientist. The day is coming when some stronger head than 
this will meet these ironclad exponents of a false philosophy, 
and show to a laughing world what an illegitimate birth modern 
geology is. God speed the day! 



AUTHOK'S :^OTE. 

The author of this volume proposes to publish the re- 
maining volumes as he secures a sufficient number of 
names of persons who will take one or more copies of 
the same when issued. Each one of these volumes is 
competent to prove the truth of the annular theory. 
Parties who desire to read further in this line should 
send their names to the author, stating the volume or 
the volumes desired, and I trust their publication will 
not be deferred very long. Each book will contain 400 
or more pages of the size of this, and will be sold for 
$2.00, and entitled thus: 

" The Gods Unvailed,^' Vol. II. 
" The Fall of Lucifer,'' Vol. III. 
" Canopus, the Vail,'' Vol. IV. 

Pamphlets now for sale by the author : 

1. " The Coal Problem." 44 pages. Price, 25 
cents. 

2. " Eden's Flaming Sword." 48 pages. Price, 
25 cents. 

3. " Alaska, Land of the E^ugget. Why ? " 68 
pages. Price, 50 cents. 

4. " Ophir's Golden Wedge." 36 pages. Price, 
25 cents. 

5. Single copies of the " Annular World." 20 
pages. Price, 10 cents. 

The entire list mailed for $1.00. 

Address, 

I. ]^. VAIL, 

Pasadena, Cal. 



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